The  Story 

of  the 

Congo  Free  State 

Social,    Political,    and    Economic    Aspects    of  the 
Belgian   System  of  Government  in 
Central  Africa  ' 


By 

Henry  Wellington   Wack,  F.R.G.S. 

(Member  of  the  New  York  Bar) 


With  125  Illustrations  and  Maps 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

Zbc  Ivtiickerbochcr   preee 

1905 


Copyright,  1905 

BY 

HENRY  WELLINGTON  WACK 


Vbe  fintclierbocltec  press,  Ttew  ^orh 


^1 

Wlls 


PREFACE 

AS  a  student  of  Mid-African  affairs  for  the  past 
seven  years,  and  a  close  observer  of  the  rapid 
progress  toward  complete  civilisation  now- 
being  made  in  that  part  of  the  world,  I  have  felt  it 
my  duty  to  lay  before  m}^  countrymen  the  true  and 
complete  story  of  the  conception,  formation,  and 
development  of  the  Congo  Free  State. 

At  a  period  of  such  bitter  controversy  concerning 
the  government  of  the  Congo  Free  State  as  the 
present,  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  explain  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  I  add  this  volume  to  the 
literature  of  that  subject. 

During  a  residence  of  several  years  in  the  United 
Kingdom,  I  could  not  fail  to  observe  the  growth 
there  of  an  organised  campaign  against  the  Congo 
Free  State.  That  a  small  section  of  the  British 
public,  interested  in  the  rubber  trade,  should  by 
subtle  means  seek  to  delude  or  should  even  succeed 
in  deluding,  the  great  British  nation  so  completely 
as  to  obtain  general  credence  for  its  stories  of 
cruelty  and  oppression  alleged  against  King  Leopold's 
government  failed  to  move  me.  It  was  not  my 
concern,  while  enjoying  the  hospitality  of  England, 
to  criticise  the  way  in  which  her  religious  organisa- 
tions were  being  used  to  further  the  selfish  aims  of  a 


3J4.G97 


iv  Preface 

small  clique  of  Liverpool  merchants.  But  when, 
within  the  past  year,  I  perceived  that  the  campaign 
of  calumny  against  the  Congo  Free  State  was  being 
extended  to  the  United  States,  I  could  not  longer 
regard  the  phenomenon  with  a  merely  passive  in- 
terest. It  occurred  to  me  that  my  knowledge  of 
Mid-African  affairs  might  enable  me  to  place  before 
the  American  people  a  complete  statement  of  the 
actual  facts  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  that  my 
self-imposed  task  could  not  fail  to  be  of  value  at  a 
time  when  interested  partisans  were  endeavouring 
to  deceive  them. 

Having  obtained  an  introduction  to  the  King  of 
the  Belgians,  I  informed  his  Majesty  that  I  believed 
the  American  people  would  much  esteem  the  true 
history  of  the  affairs  of  the  Congo  written  by  an 
American,  and  that  if  his  Majesty  would  grant  me 
access  to  the  archives  of  the  Administration  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  in  Brussels,  and  leave  me  free  to 
write  the  story  of  his  enterprise  in  my  own  way, 
absolutely  without  interference  or  suggestion  from 
any  of  his  ministers  or  himself,  I  would  undertake 
the  task  on  my  own  account. 

His  Majesty,  having  considered  my  credentials  and 
the  nature  of  my  introduction,  in  due  course  in- 
formed me  that  all  the  documents  in  the  Congo 
Administration  Office  were  open  to  my  inspection. 
His  Majesty  added  that  he  had  no  fear  but  that  the 
American  people,  when  informed  of  the  truth  about 
the  Congo,  would  appreciate,  as  he  did,  that  the 
Congolese  civilisation  movement  is  the  greatest 
colonising  success  in  the  history  of   the  world.      I 


Preface  v 

was  admitted  into  the  offices  of  the  Congo  Adminis- 
tration and  spent  many  weeks  there  searching  for, 
translating,  and  copying  documents.  Those  which 
had  already  been  translated  into  English,  I  adopted 
in  the  form  in  which  I  found  them.  When  I  left 
Brussels,  I  again  indicated  to  his  Majesty's  ministers, 
and  to  his  Majesty  himself,  that  I  should  write  the 
story  in  my  own  way.  I  brought  away  many  boxes 
of  memoranda  and  documents  and  at  once  began  to 
work  upon  The  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  I  have 
not  submitted  the  manuscript  or  proofs  to  any  per- 
son connected,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  with 
his  Majesty,  with  the  Congo  Free  State,  or  with  the 
Belgian  Government,  neither  have  I  in  any  way 
communicated  with  his  Majesty  in  reference  to  what 
I  have  written.  For  all  I  know,  his  Majesty  may 
entirely  disapprove  of  this  history.  I  should,  of 
course,  regret  exceedingly  to  learn  that  I  had  dis- 
pleased the  royal  host  who  had  extended  to  me  the 
hospitality  of  his  country  during  a  long  and  inter- 
esting visit.  But  as  I  am  under  no  obligation  what- 
ever to  the  Congo  officials,  nor  to  his  Majesty,  and 
as  my  original  intention  of  writing  an  independent 
history  of  the  Congo  was  made  quite  clear  to  both, 
I  regard  myself  as  absolved  from  blame  should  the 
King  of  the  Belgians  disapprove  of  the  straight- 
forward story  here  presented. 

That  this  story  is  true,  I  have  satisfied  myself  in 
every  particular.  It  is  the  story  of  a  great  colonis- 
ing undertaking  founded  upon  modern  social  science. 
It  can  hardly  fail  to  interest  the  reader  who  ad- 
mires the  courage  and  daring  which  small  countries 


vi  Preface 

sometimes  display  in  extending  their  borders  and 
establishing  new  markets. 

Should  this  book  in  any  way  assist  my  country- 
men in  thinking  out  the  underlying  motives  in  the 
campaign  against  the  Congo,  and  bring  them  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  real  issues  at  stake,  my  labour  will 
be  sufficiently  rewarded. 

I  take  this  opportunity  to  acknowledge  my  obli- 
gation to  the  works  of  Messrs.  Stanley,  Descamps, 
Boulger,  Johnston,  Cattier,  and  Wauters,  and  to  all 
who  have  kindly  assisted  me  with  information. 

H.  W.  W. 

New  York,  January  2,  1905. 


CONTENTS 


I. 
II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

►   XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 


KXIII.— 


Preface      .  ..... 

Genesis  of  Mid-African  Civilisation 
-Stanley  AND  King  Leopold  II. 's  Concep 

TiON  of  the  Congo  Free  State  . 
Founding  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
•Early  Belgian  Expeditions 
The  Waterways  of  the  Congo 
The  State  and  International  Law  . 
Horrors  of  the  Arab  Slave  Trade  . 
The  Berlin  Conference    . 
The    Economic    Regime    of    the    Berlin 

Act       ...... 

An  Appeal  to  Belgium  to  Suppress  the 

Slave  Trade         .... 
The  Second  Brussels  Conference    . 
The  Congo  Bequeathed  to  Belgium 
Tribes  of  the  Congo  State 
The  Congo  Public  Force  . 
Belgian  Campaigns, against  the  Arabs 
Belgian   Campaigns    against   the   Arabs 

— (Concluded)        .... 
The  Suppression  of  Slavery     . 
Frontiers  and  Diplomatic  Settlements 
The  Bahr-el-Ghazal  and  the  Nile  . 
Mutinies  of  the  Batetela  Tribe 
Displacement  of  the  Population 
The  State's  Administration  :     . 
Department  of  Justice  . 
Native  Chieftaincies 
The  Postal,  Telegraph,  and  Telephone 

Service         ...... 

vii 


PAGE 

v 
I 

14 

23 

31 
42 

64 

83 

92 

104 
126 

134 
145 
151 

164 

177 


197 

206 

211 
216 
223 
228 
231 
239 

243 


/' 


viii  Contents 


PAGE 


264 
274 
298 
308 

366 


XXIV. — Navigation,  Railways,  Roads  .         .     248 

XXV.— Science,  Agriculture,  Civilising  Meas- 
ures    ..... 

XXVI.-^Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes     . 
XXVII. — Missions  and  Schools 
XXVIII. — State  Lands  and  Concessions 
XXIX. — The  Nemesis  of  Libel 
XXX. — The  Congo  Campaign  in  England 
XXXI. — The  Congo  Campaign  in  America 
XXXII. — Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers     397 
XXXIII. — Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers 

—(Continued)        .         .         .         .         .411 

XXXIV. — Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers 

— (Continued)         .         .         .         .         .418 

XXXV. — Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers 

— (Concluded)         .         .         .         .         .424 

XXXVI. — The  Attitude  of  Europe  and  the  United 

States  .......     446 

XXXVII. — Summary,  Retrospect,  and  Prophecy      .     472 

APPENDIX 

The  Treaty  of  Vivi,  13th  June,  1880       .         .         .         .487 

The  Treaty  of  Many anga,  12th  August,  1882  .          ,     488 

The  Treaty  of  Leopold ville,  29th  April,  1883  .          .     489 

The  Treaty  of  Stephanieville,  undated  .  .  .     490 

Table  of  other  Treaties,  Districts  ceded,  and  Stations 
established  by  the  International  Association  of  the 
Congo      .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  491 

Report  from  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  March  26,  1884  (Sena- 
tor John  T.  Morgan,  of  Alabama),  recommending 
the  recognition  of  the  International  African  Asso- 
ciation as  a  friendly  Government,  M^ith  citations 
from  the  history  of  the  American  colonies  .  .  49  2 
An  essay  on  "The  Free  Navigation  of  the  Congo."  by 
Sir  Travers  Twiss,  taken  from  the  Revue  de  Droit 
International,  1883  .         .         .         .         .         .502 


Contents  ix 

PAGB 

An    argument    by    Professor    Arntz,    citing    numerous 

authorities,  on  the   question,   Can  Savage  Tribes 

cede  their   territory   to    Private  Persons  with  the 

Sovereign  Rights  appertaining  thereto    .         .         .516 

For  Treaty  between  the  International  Association  of  the 

Congo  and  the  United  States,  see  Chapter  IV. 
The  General  Act  of  the  Berlin  Conference      .         .         .     530 
Declaration  of  the  General  Act  of  the  Brussels  Confer- 
ence, July  2,  1890  ......     552 

Treaty  of  Amity,  Commerce,  and  Navigation  between 
the  United  States  and  the  Congo  Free  State,  Jan- 
uary 24,  1891 553 

Protocol  in  which  the  United  States  ratifies  the  General 

Act  of  the  Brussels  Conference,  February  2,  1892     .     559 
Dispatch    from    his    Britannic    Majesty's    Minister    at 
Brussels  enclosing: 

A  Decree  by  the  Sovereign  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
providing  Settlements  for  native  children  orphaned 
or  abandoned,  July  12,  1890  ....     561 

A  Decree  instituting  a  local  Commission  of  Europeans 
for  the  Protection  of  Natives,  September  18,  1896    .     562 

Official  letter  of  instruction  thereon  from  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  to  the  Governor-General  at  Boma,  in 
the  Congo  Free  State,  October  I,  1896      .         .         .     563 

Letter  of  Governor-General  Wahis  to  the  Reverend 
George  Grenfell  (British),  of  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Society  at  Bolobo,  transmitting  Decree,  December 
26,  1896  ........     565 

Circular  to  all  District  Commissioners,  lleads  of  Zones 
and  of  Posts  with  regard  to  barbarous  customs 
prevaihng  among  the  native  tribes,  February  27, 
1897 566 

Letter  from  the  Reverend  George  Grenfell  to  the 
Governor-General,  July  13,  1897      .         .         .         .     568 

Co-ordinated  text  of  various  instructions  respecting 
relations  between  state  officials  and  natives     .         -569 

Report  of  first  meeting  of  Commission  for  Protection 
of  Natives,  May  17,  1897 57i 


X  Contents 

PAGE 

A  Decree  appointing  additional  members  upon  the 
Commission  for  the  Protection  of  Natives,  March 

23.  1901 572 

The  British  Dispatch  to  European  Powers  calling  at- 
tention to  charges  alleged  against  the  Congo  Free 
State,  and  inviting  consideration  thereof.     August 

8,  1903  573 

Letter    from    Sir    Constantine    Phipps,    his    Britannic 
Majesty's  Minister   at   Brussels,  transmitting  text  of 
the  Note  and  its  enclosures  addressed  by  the  Congo 
Government  to  the  Powers  parties  to  the  Act  of 
Berlin,  replying  to  the  British  Dispatch  of  August 

8,  1903  577 

Rejoinder  of  the  Congo  Government  to  the  Report, 
dated  December  11,  1903,  of  Mr.  Roger  Casement, 
his  Britannic  Majesty's  Consul  at  Boma,  wherein, 
amongst  others,  charges  of  maltreatment  of  natives 
are  made.     March  12,  1904     .....     590 

Memorandum  on  the  part  of  the  Congo  Government 
regretting  that  the  British  Foreign  Office  did  not 
deem  it  necessary  to  communicate  to  it  previous 
Consular  Reports,  the  names  of  persons  accused 
and  generally  such  specific  information  as  would 
enable  the  Congo  Government  to  prosecute  of- 
fenders, etc.,  together  with  the  remarks  of  the 
Secretary-General  of  the  Congo  Free  State  upon 
the  debates  in  the  British  Parliament  as  to  par- 
titioning that  State  between  the  Powers  whose 
possessions  surround  it.     May  14,  1904  .  .     610 

Features  of  the  Land  System  in  the  African  Colonies  of 

Germany,  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Portugal        .     612 

Concessionaires,  Firms,  and  Trading  Companies  in  the 

Congo  Free  State    .         .         .         .         .         .         .616 

Officials  of  the  Congo  Free  State    .         .         .         .         .617 

Index    ..........     619 


ERRATA 

Illustration,  page  92,  read  Basoko  for  Baneko. 
Illustration,  page  130,  read  Turumbus  for  Barumbus. 
Illustration,  page  216,  read  Commissary-General. 
Illustration,  page  226,  read  House  for  Mission, 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING    PAGE 

His  Majesty  Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians  .  Frontispiece 
(From  a  painting  by  Jef  Leempoels.) 

Native  Huts  Built  of  Leaves  (Aruwimi)  ...       4 

8 

12 

14 
18 
26 


Elephant  Farm  on  the  Bomokandi 

Basongolo  Chiefs  (Lokandu)     ..... 

House  of  Governor-General,  Boma 

The  Congo  at  Lokandu    ...... 

View  of  the  Port  of  Leopoldville  (Stanley  Pool) 
Making     a     Road     (175    kilometres)    for    Automobiles 

(Kwango)  ....... 

A  Saddle  Ox,  Kassai        ...... 

European  Travelling  in  the  Uelle  District 

Native  Employees  of  the  State  Waiting  for  Rations  at 

Bomr         ........ 

SS.  Leopoldville  Bound  for  Boma     .... 

Departure  of  Commissioner-General  Halfeyt,  on  Board 

SS.  Stanley,  Stanleyville,  1899  .... 
Departure  of  SS.  Goodwill  from  Upoto 
Bridge,  80  Metres  (Kwilu)        ..... 
State  Pilot  Barge,  Banana       ..... 
Taking  Merchandise  to  the  SS.  Leopoldville 
State  Post   at    Yankomi,  near  Basoko,  Surrounded  by 

Palisade  (Aruwimi)  ..... 

Europeans  at  Stanleyville,  1902 

Post-Office,  Boma  ...... 

Native  Boys,  Boma  ...... 


30 
34 
34 

40 
42 

46 

SO 
58 
58 
66 

72 
78 
80 
82 


xii  List  of  Illustrations 


PACING    PAGB 


Group  of  Yie-Yie  Women  (Uelle)     .... 

Types  of  Bearers  (North  Bank  of  Cataracts) 

Native  Potters  at  Work  (Aruwimi) 

Making  Manioc  Flour,  Baneko  (Aruwimi) 

Native  Musicians  at  Lusambo  (Lualaba-Kassai) 

Market,  near  Boma  ...... 

Government  Park,  Boma,  1904         .... 

Students  of  the  State  Technical  School,  New  Antwerp 
(Bangala)  ....... 

Hospital,  Boma        ....... 

Bridge  Made  of  Cement,  Boma         .... 

Types  of  Barumbus  (Stanley  Falls) 

Government  Wagons        ...... 

House  of  Vice-Governor-General,  Stanleyville 

Postmaster's  House,  Suruango,  1904 

A  Street  in  Coquilhatville,  1896  (Equateur)     . 

Camp  on  Line  of  Cataracts  Railroad,  Songololo 

Return  from  the  Hunt  at  Bumba  (Bangala)    . 

Baluba  Chiefs  ....... 

The  Governor's  House,  Ponthierville  (Upper  Congo) 

European  Houses  at  Coquilhatville  (Equateur) 

Specimens  of  Hair-dressing  among  Women  of  the  Sango 
Tribe,  Banzyville  (Ubanghi)      .... 

Cicatrised  Batetela  Woman  (Lualaba-Kassai) 

Funeral  at  Bumba  (Bangala)  .... 

Women  Beating  Rice,  Uelle     ..... 

Tribunal  at  Boma.  Sentencing  a  Native  to  Death  for 
Cannibalism  Committed  in  the  Upper  Congo     . 

Batetela  Women  (Lualaba-Kassai) 

Kassai  Women  Returning  from  Market 

African  Belles.  Hair-dressing  of  Sango  Women  at  Banzy- 
ville, 1894  (Ubanghi)         .         .         .         .         .         .160 


List  of  Illustrations  xiii 

FACING  PAGE 

Bangala  Women       ........   162 

Bakusu  Chiefs,  Stanleyville      .         .         .         .         .         .162 

Group  of  Warriors,  Djabbir      ......   164 

Coffins  for  Native  Chiefs,  Wangata,  1897  (Equateur)        .    164 
Native    Making    Butter    at    his    Home    in    Botandana 

(Kivu) 166 

A  Bangala  Chief,  with  his  Harem  .         .         .         .166 

Native  Canoes,  Lower  Congo  .         .         .         .         .170 

Fishermen,  Uvvia  .         .         .         .         .         .170 

Uelle  Chief  and  his  Wives,  Van  Kerckhovenville      .         .172 
Port  of  Leopoldville.     Natives  at  Work  .  .  .172 

Tailors'  School,  New  Antwerp  (Bangala)  .         .         -174 

Steam  Saw-Mill,  Boma     .         .         .         .         .         .         .176 

Camp  of  Bangalas,  Stanleyville        .         .         .         .         .178 

Types  of  Lokeles,  Jafungas  (Oriental  Province)        .  .   i8o 

Review  of  Troops  by  Governor-General  at  New  Antwerp  184 
Soldiers'  Mess,  Suruango,  1903  (Uelle)     .         .         .         .189 

Soldiers'  Wives,  Bumba  .  .  .  .  .  .186 

The  White  Man's  Cemetery,  Stanleyville  .         .         .188 

Hospital,  New  Antwerp  .         .         .         .         .         .188 

An  Avenue  at  Boma         .......   190 

Office  of  Secretary-General,  Boma  .         .         .         .192 

Post-Office  on  River  Bank,  Boma  .         .         .         .192 

Bishop's  Palace,  Mission  of  Our  Lady  of  M'Pala  (Tan- 
ganyika)   196 

Office  of  Director  of  Transport,  Boma      .         .         .         .196 

Cattle,  Luvungy  (Kivu)  ......   200 

Various  Mounts,  Lusambo  (Lualaba-Kassai)    .         .         .   200 
Grand  Hotel,  Boma  .......   203 

Native  Ploughing  in  Botanical  Garden  at  Ealer  (Equa- 
teur) .........   206 

The  Old  Covered  Market  at  Boma  .         .         .         .210 


xiv  List  of  Illustrations 

FACING  PAGE 

Commissariat  of  the  District  of  Banana,  1893  .         .212 

King  Nekuku  and  his  Suite  at  Boma        .  .  .  .214 

Regiment  of  Commissioner-General  Halfeyt,  Stanleyville   216 
State  Officials  at  Ponthierville  .          .  .  ,          .220 

Saddle  Ox,  Lusambo  (Lualaba-Kassai)  .         .         .220 

Bird's-eye  View  of  the  Station  at  Basoko,  1893        .          .   222 
Dutch  Mission,  Banana  .         .         .         .         .         .226 

Bishop's  Palace  at  Baudouinville  (Oriental  Province)       .   228 
Children  of  the  Settlement  School,  Boma          .  .  .   234 

In  the  State  Printing  Office  at  Boma.     Natives  Laying-on 

and  Taking-off  .......   238 

Natives  Working  Sewing  Machines  at  Kisantu          .  .242 

Children  of  the   Settlement   Drilling  at   New  Antwerp, 

1896  (Bangala)  .......   246 

Zappo-Zapp  Musicians,  Luluabourg  .  .  .  .250 

Band  of  Government  Technical  School,  Boma  .         .256 

Coffee  Plantation  at  Yalicombe  (Oriental  Province)  .   258 

Shelling  Coffee,  Stanleyville     .  .          .  .  .  .270 

Making  Baskets  for  Transportation  of  Rubber  (Kassai)  .   272 
Collecting   Rubber    in    Forest    of    Lusambo    (Lualaba- 
Kassai)      .........  280 

Church  and  Rectory,  Matadi  .          .          .          .          .286 

Native  Carpenters  at  Work,  Mission  of  New  Antwerp,  1897   294 
Orphans  Praying  at  St.  Truden  (Kassai)  .          .  .302 

Children  of  the  Settlement  School  at  Boma  Praying         .  308 
Mission  of  the  White  Fathers,  Tanganyika       .         .          .314 
The  Mission,  Moanda       .         .         .         .         .         .         .320 

Missionary  Necropolis,  Luluabourg  .         ,         .         .328 

Franciscan  Sisters  at  the  Mission  of  St.  Gabriel  of  the 

Falls  (Oriental  Province)  .....  336 

Native  Christians  of  the  Village  of  Our  Lady  of  Lourdes, 

near  the  Mission  of  Luluabourg,  1897        •          •          •  344 


List  of  Illustrations  xv 

PACING  PAGE 

Drying  Rubber  in  the  Forest  (Kassai)     .         .         .         .348 


Mission  Children  at  New  Antwerp 

A  Beautiful  Spot  in  Mayumbe  .... 

Interior  of  Cathedral,  Baudouinville  (Tanganyika) 

Sisters  of  New  Antwerp  Teaching  Natives  to  Weave 

Building  a  Bridge  for  the  Cataracts  Railroad,  1897 

Christian  Child,  New  Antwerp  (Bangala) 

Fetich-Idol,  Lower  Congo         ..... 

Coffee-Drying  Grounds,  Coquilhatville  (Equateur) 

Bakusu  Woman  (Lualaba-Kassai) 

Village  near  Coquilhatville,     A  Native  Attempt  to  Copy 

the  European  Style  ..... 

Melting  Latex  of  Rubber  in  Forest  of  Lusambo  (Lusambo 

Kassai)      ........ 

Soldiers'  Mess  at  Coquilhatville  (Equateur) 

Public  Library,  Matadi  ..... 

The  Station  at  Bumba     ...... 

Convent    of    Franciscans    of    St.    Gabriel    of    the    Falls 

(Oriental  Province)  ..... 

Prison,  with  Carpenter's  Shop,  at  New  Antwerp  (Ban 

gala) 

Native  Planter's  House,  near  Stanley  Falls 
Mission  of  New  Antwerp  (Bangala) 

The  Sultan  Djabbir 

Father  Kisouru  of  the  New  Antwerp  Mission  (Bangala) 

MAPS. 


358 
366 
374 
374 
382 

390 
390 
398 
398 

406 

412 
420 
420 
426 

434 

446 
446 
460 
482 
482 


Outline  Map  of  Africa      . i 

Map  of  Central  Africa       ......     At  end 


Outline  Map  of  Africa 


THE  STORY  OF 
THE  CONGO  FREE  STATE 


CHAPTER  I 
GENESIS  OF  MID-AFRICAN  CIVILISATION 

THE  decline  and  fall  of  great  empires  has  ever 
been  a  fascinating  subject  of  study,  congenial 
alike  to  students  of  widely  diverse  opinions 
and  pursuits;  yet  it  must  be  clear  to  all  that  in 
human  interest  the  breaking  up  of  an  em- 
pire is  as  nothing  when  compared  with  its  ^^  Embryo, 
founding.  The  reason  is,  probably,  that  so 
little  is  known  of  the  origin  of  great  national  com- 
munities. The  United  States  is  almost  alone  among 
nations  in  respect  that  its  growth,  from  its  inception 
to  its  mature  ultimate  triumph,  has  been  watched  by 
keenly  observant  eyes,  and  every  particular  of  its 
perilous  progress  carefully  recorded.  But  when  the 
future  historian,  with  comprehensive  appreciation  im- 
possible in  a  contemporary,  reviews  the  events  of 
the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  one  fact 
will  stand  well  out  before  him,  a  unique  and  very 
potent  fact,  fraught  with  vast  possibilities  for  the 


2  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

future — none  other  than  the  founding,  by  the  wisdom 
of  a  kingly  philanthropist,  of  a  humanitarian,  civilis- 
ing, free  political  state  in  the  very  heart  of  savage 
and  cannibalistic  Africa. 

Consider  for  a  moment  how  the  great  Congo  Free 
State  has  been  evolved  out  of  a  group  of  warring 
tribes  (in  part  cannibal),  and  inquire  what  manner 
of  man  is  Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  alone  re- 
sponsible for  this  wondrous  transformation ;  and  who 
even  now,  when  weight  of  years  and  record  of  achieve- 
ment might  well  entitle  him  to  repose,  works  on 
bravely,  through  good  and  through  ill  report,  for  the 
prosperity  and  happiness  of  the  twenty-odd  million 
Africans  who  acknowledge  him  for  their  Sovereign. 

Thirty -six  years  ago,  when  the  present  Sovereign  of 
the  Congo  Free  State  succeeded  his  father  as  King 
of  the  Belgians,  and  became  known  to  the  world  as 
Leopold  II.,  Africa  was  generally  referred  to  as  the 
"Dark  Continent."  At  that  period,  and  for  long 
after,  even  the  most  optimistic  of  statesmen  failed 
to  perceive  in  those  vast  regions  any  promising  out- 
let for  the  congested  populations  of  the  Old  World, 
or  possible  markets  for  their  manufactures.  Dia- 
monds, small  in  quantity  and  of  indifferent  quality, 
had,  it  is  true,  been  discovered  in  the  southernmost 
part  of  that  continent,  in  a  region  already  appro- 
priated by  the  British.  Gold,  also,  was  thought  to 
exist  there,  but  not  in  paying  quantities;  while  the 
deadliness  of  the  African  climate  to  Europeans,  in 
all  save  a  few  favoured  sections,  was  an  universally 
accepted  article  of  faith. 

Foremost  among  the  small  band  of  thinkers  who 


Genesis  of  Mid-African  Civilisation  3 

totally  dissented  from  this  view  was  Leopold  II.,  King 
of  the  Belgians.  A  young  man  of  extraordinarily 
fine  physique,  an  accomplished  linguist,  widely  read 
and  travelled,  and  holding  advanced  liberal  views 
in  all  matters  pertaining  to  statecraft  and  social 
science.  King  Leopold  had  early  the  prescience  to 
perceive  in  Africa  the  means  to  uplift  some  twenty 
or  more  millions  of  the  Negro  race  from  debased 
savagery  to  peaceful  civilisation,  and  af  the  same 
time  and  by  the  same  means — the  latter  a  neces- 
sarily accompanying  incident  of  the  former — found 
a  colony  for  the  surplus  population  of  the  small 
State  of  which  he  is  King;  Belgium  being  then,  as 
now,  the  most  densely  populated  of  European  coun- 
tries, its  people  almost  entirely  dependent  on  the 
sale  abroad  of  the  products  of  their  industry. 

Bold  and  original  ideas  rarely  find  much  favour 
when  first  presented  to  the  world.  The  bulk  of  man- 
kind is  conservative;  it  thinks  of  yesterday,  is  op- 
pressed by  the  troubles  of  to-day,  and  lets  to-morrow 
take  care  of  itself.  At  first,  where  King  Leopold's 
ideas  for  the  regeneration  of  Africa  attracted  any 
attention  at  all,  they  were  regarded  with  bland 
smiles  as  Utopian  visions,  more  creditable  to  the 
heart  than  to  the  head  of  the  princely  visionary. 
But  true  genius,  though  it  may  be  hampered  and 
delayed  in  its  onward  march,  is  not  to  be  extin- 
guished either  by  active  opposition  or  cold  indiffer- 
ence. Of  such  calibre  is  King  Leopold,  or  there 
would  to-day  be  no  Congo  Free  State,  nor  what  some 
past-masters  in  the  obscuration  of  the  obvious  are 
sometimes  pleased  to  call  "the  Congo  Question." 


4  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

So  long  ago  as  i860,  King  Leopold,  then  Duke  of 
Brabant,  in  a  speech  delivered  before  the  Belgian 
Senate,  said :  "  I  claim  for  Belgium  her  share 
s  ntence^*^*^  ^^  ^^^  sea," — apparently  a  plain  and  colour- 
less utterance,  but  really  the  expression  of 
a  vital  interest  for  his  country,  for  which  no  market 
spells  extinction,  and  no  political  power  but  on  Bel- 
gian soil  means  no  market  for  Belgian  goods.  In 
i860  the  attention  of  mankind  was  just  beginning  to 
turn  to  Africa.  Two  years  before.  Sir  Richard  Bur- 
ton and  Captain  Speke  had  startled  geographers  by 
discovering  Lake  Tanganyika,  a  revelation  to  be  soon 
afterwards  eclipsed  by  the  further  discovery  of  the 
sources  of  the  Nile  and  Lake  Victoria,  by  Speke  and 
Grant.  About  the  same  time  Sir  Samuel  Baker,  then 
in  the  service  of  the  Khedive  of  Egypt,  discovered 
Lake  Albert.  The  travellers  whose  fortune  it  was  to 
make  these  important  discoveries  had  been  preceded 
by  the  intrepid  Dr.  Livingstone,  whose  marvellous 
energies  on  behalf  of  civilisation  and  Christianity 
were,  however,  chiefly  confined  to  the  Zambesi  Valley 
until  the  year  1866,  when  he  first  entered  the  Congo 
region  and  further  enhanced  his  already  great  repu- 
tation by  discovering  the  lakes  Moero  and  Bangweolo. 
Then  came  the  discovery  of  Livingstone — 
Choice.  ^  himself  so  long  lost  to  his  anxious  country- 
men— by  Henry  M.  Stanley.  That  was  in 
187 1,  when  the  armed  hosts  of  France  and  Germany 
were  engaged  in  a  death  struggle,  and  led  Mr.  Glad- 
stone to  remark: 

The  eyes  of  all  the  world  are  bent  toward  the  bloody  battle- 


Genesis  of  Mid- African  Civilisation  5 

fields  of  France;  but  I  prefer  to  regard  those  almost  im- 
penetrable African  wilds  where  a  small  band  of  men,  whose 
numbers  may  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand,  add 
year  by  year  to  our  knowledge  of  those  little-known  regions, 
carrying  with  them  the  blessings  of  civilisation  and  of  truth, 
heralding  the  extinction  of  what  for  so  many  ages  has  been 
the  world's  curse — slavery." 

Gladstone  was  right.  To  all  civilised  peoples,  but 
specially  to  men  of  Anglo-Saxon  speech — English- 
men, who  had  given  lavishly  of  their  millions  to  free 
the  slaves  held  in  their  colonies ;  Americans,  who  had 
poured  out  their  blood  like  water  in  a  similar  cause 
— the  accounts  given  by  explorers  and  missionaries 
of  the  horrors  of  the  slave  trade,  rampant  in  Central 
Africa,  were  as  the  smell  of  powder  to  the  war-horse. 
Only  a  few  people  are  interested  in  geography  as  a 
science.  A  vastly  greater  number  are  affected  by  a 
widening  of  the  area  for  trade.  But  the  effectual 
suppression  of  slavery  is  a  question  that  comes  home 
to  everybody.  No  one  can  stand  aside,  indifferent 
to  it.  The  ghastly  horrors  of  the  murderous  raids 
made  by  the  remorseless  Arab  slave-traders  upon 
defenceless  Central  African  villages,  so  graphically 
described  by  travellers,  thrilled  the  civilised  world. 
No  effort  was  needed  now  to  direct  public  attention 
to  Africa.  Africa  loomed  large  in  men's  minds; 
and  the  question  of  slavery,  fondly  thought  to  be 
for  ever  laid  at  rest  by  the  tremendous  conflict  in 
America  in  the  early  sixties,  again  became  a  vital 
problem. 

Of  the  numerous  activities  which  distinguish  the 
character    of    Leopold    II.,    philanthropy    has    the 


6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

greater  force.  Much  that  is  quite  incontrovertible 
might  be  urged  in  support  of  this  statement;  but 
...  '    this    is  neither  the  place  nor  time  to  ar- 

King  ^ 

Leopold's  gue  that  matter.  Suffice  it  to  say  here 
^^}^  that  upon  no  one  did  the  revelations  as  to 

the  methods  of  capture  and  subsequent 
treatment  of  Central  African  slaves  make  a  deeper 
impression  than  upon  King  Leopold.  As  a  life- 
long student  of  Africa,  and  a  geographer  of  rare 
attainments,  in  personal  touch  with  all  the  au- 
thorities on  the  subject,  his  information  was  as 
accurate  and  complete  as  it  was  possible  for  it  to 
be.  Though  the  great  European  governments  had 
compelled  the  Khedive  of  Egypt  to  exert  himself 
to  the  utmost  to  repress  slave -trading  on  the  Upper 
Nile,  and  the  complaisant  Egyptian  ruler  had  ap- 
pointed first  one  Englishman  and  then  another 
(Sir  Samuel  Baker  and  Charles  Gordon,  the  latter 
being  the  ill-fated  General  of  that  name)  to  admin- 
ister the  government  of  the  Soudan,  and  some  good 
resulted,  it  was  well  known  to  King  Leopold  that 
south  of  the  Equator  to  the  Zambesi  the  slave  trade 
continued  to  be  prosecuted  as  vigorously  as  it  had 
ever  been  in  the  remote  past.  How  might  the  evil 
be  stamped  out?  Or,  if  such  a  consummation  were 
too  much  to  hope  for  within  the  immediate  future, 
how  best  might  the  evil  be  checked?  In  consider- 
ing these  questions,  King  Leopold  very  rightly  con- 
cluded that  the  more  thorough  the  knowledge  of 
Central  Africa  possessed  by  Europeans  the  greater 
the  possibility  of  success  in  their  efforts  to  ameliorate 
the  awful  misery  of  its  people. 


Genesis  of  Mid-African  Civilisation  7 

Imbued  with  these  views,  King  Leopold  in  1876 
called  the  attention  of  the  principal  geographical  so- 
cieties throughout  the  world  to  the  conditions  then 
prevailing  in  Central  Africa,  and  invited  all  ex- 
pert geographers  of  international  reputation  to  con- 
fer in  Brussels.  The  circular  letter  of  King  Leopold 
convening  this  Conference,  though  perfectly  explicit 
in  its  terms,  has,  in  light  of  subsequent  events, 
been  so  distorted  to  serve  personal  interests,  that 
no  excuse  is  necessary  for  reproducing  its  exact 
words : 

In  almost  every  country  [wrote  King  Leopold],  a  lively  in- 
terest is  taken  in  the  geographical  discoveries  recently  made 
in  Central  Africa.  The  English,  the  Americans,  the  Germans, 
the  Italians,  and  the  French  have  taken  part  in  their  different 
degrees  in  this  generous  movement.  These  expeditions  are 
the  response  to  an  idea  eminently  civilising  and  Christian: 
to  abolish  slavery  in  Africa,  to  pierce  the  darkness  that  still 
envelops  that  part  of  the  world,  while  recognising  the  re- 
sources which  appear  immense — ^in  a  word,  to  pour  into  it 
the  treasures  of  civilisation :  such  is  the  object  of  this  modern 
crusade.  Hitherto  the  efforts  made  have  been  without  ac- 
cord, and  this  has  given  rise  to  the  opinion,  held  especially 
in  England,  that  those  who  pursue  a  common  object  should 
confer  together  to  regulate  their  march,  to  establish  some 
landmarks,  to  delimit  the  regions  to  be  explored,  so  that  no 
enterprise  may  be  done  twice  over.  I  have  recently  ascer- 
tained in  England  that  the  principal  members  of  the  Geo- 
graphical Society  of  London  are  very  willing  to  meet  at 
Brussels  the  Presidents  of  the  Geographical  Societies  of  the 
Continent,  and  those  other  persons  who,  by  their  travels, 
studies,  philanthropic  tastes,  and  charitable  instincts,  are 
the  most  closely  identified  with  the  efforts  to  introduce  civil- 
isation into  Africa.  This  reunion  will  give  rise  to  a  sort  of 
conference,  the  object  of  which  would  be  to  discuss  in  common 


8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  actual  situation  in  Africa,  to  establish  the  results  at- 
tained, to  define  those  which  have  to  be  attained. 


In  cordially  accepting  King  Leopold's  invitation, 
the  six  great  nations  of  Europe  selected  their  most 
distinguished  geographers  and  travellers  to 
Conference,  represent  them.  Great  Britain  sent  five 
delegates,  all  men  of  distinction  in  African 
affairs,  Germany  sent  four,  France  three,  Austria 
two,  Russia  one,  and  Italy  one.  Belgium  had 
eleven  representatives,  among  them  the  accom- 
plished Baron  Lambermont.  The  Conference,  which 
lasted  three  days,  was  convened  in  the  royal  palace 
at  Brussels  on  September  12,  1876.  It  was  opened 
by  King  Leopold  in  person.  The  speech  made  by 
his  Majesty  on  that  occasion  follows  so  naturally 
his  invitation  to  the  assembled  gentlemen  that  it 
might  almost  be  mistaken  for  a  continuation  of  that 
document.  The  reason  for  quoting  the  former  now 
applies  to  the  following  exact  translation  of  the 
King's  speech: 

"Gentlemen,"  said  his  Majesty,  "permit  me  to 
thank  you  warmly  for  the  amiable  promptness  with 
which  you  have  been  kind  enough  to  come  here  at 
my  invitation.  Besides  the  satisfaction  that  I  shall 
have  in  hearing  you  discuss  here  the  problems  in  the 
solution  of  which  we  are  interested,  I  experience  the 
liveliest  sense  of  pleasure  in  meeting  the  distinguished 
men  whose  works  and  valorous  efforts  on  behalf  of 
civilisation  I  have  followed  for  many  years. 

"The  subject  which  brings  us  together  to-day  is 
one  that  deserves  in  the  highest  degree  to  engage 


m 


a 


Genesis  of  Mid-African  Civilisation  9 

the  attention  of  the  friends  of  hiimanity.  To  open 
to  civihsation  the  only  part  of  the  globe  where  it 
has  not  yet  penetrated,  to  pierce  the  darkness  en- 
shrouding entire  populations,  that  is,  if  I  may  ven- 
ture to  say  so,  a  crusade  worthy  of  this  century  of 
progress;  and  I  am  happy  to  discover  how  much 
public  sentiment  is  in  favour  of  its  accomplishment. 
The  current  is  with  us. 

"Gentlemen,  among  those  who  have  most  closely 
studied  Africa,  a  good  many  have  been  led  to  think 
that  there  w^ould  be  advantage  to  the  common  ob- 
ject they  pursue  if  they  could  be  brought  together 
for  the  purpose  of  conference  with  the  object  of  regu- 
lating the  march,  combining  the  efforts,  deriving 
some  profit  from  all  circumstances,  and  from  all 
resources,  and  finally,  in  order  to  avoid  doing  the 
same  work  twice  over. 

"It  has  appeared  to  me  that  Belgium,  a  central 
and  a  neutral  state,  would  be  a  spot  well  chosen  for 
such  a  reimion,  and  it  is  this  view  which  has  em- 
boldened me  to  call  you  all  here,  to  my  home,  for  the 
little  Conference  that  I  have  the  great  satisfaction 
of  opening  to-day.  Is  it  necessary  for  me  to  say  to 
you  that  in  inviting  you  I  have  not  been  guided 
by  egotistic  views?  No,  gentlemen;  if  Belgium  is 
small,  she  is  happy  and  satisfied  with  her  lot.  I 
have  no  other  ambition  but  to  serve  her  well.  But  I 
will  not  go  so  far  as  to  declare  that  I  should  be 
insensible  to  the  honour  which  would  result  for  my 
country  if  an  important  forward  movement  in  a 
question  which  will  mark  our  epoch  should  be  dated 
from  Brussels.     I  should  be  happy  that  Brussels 


lo  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

should  become  in  some  way  the  headquarters  of  this 
civilising  movement. 

"I  have,  then,  allowed  myself  to  believe  that  it 
would  be  convenient  to  you  to  come  together  to 
discuss  and  to  specify,  with  the  authority  belonging 
to  you,  the  means  to  be  employed  in  order  to  plant 
definitely  the  standard  of  civilisation  on  the  soil  of 
Central  Africa,  to  agree  as  to  what  should  be  done  to 
interest  the  public  in  your  noble  enterprise,  and  to 
induce  it  to  support  you  with  its  money.  For,  gen- 
tlemen, in  works  of  this  kind  it  is  the  concurrence 
of  the  greater  number  that  makes  success ;  it  is  the 
sympathy  of  the  masses  which  it  is  necessary  to 
solicit,  and  to  know  how  to  obtain. 

"With  what  resources  should  we  not,  in  fact,  be 
endowed  if  every  one  for  whom  a  franc  is  little  or 
nothing  consented  to  throw  it  into  the  coffers  de- 
stined for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  in  the 
interior  of  Africa! 

"Great  progress  has  been  already  accomplished; 
the  unknown  has  been  attacked  from  many  sides; 
and  if  those  here  present,  who  have  enriched  science 
with  such  important  discoveries,  would  describe  for 
us  the  principal  points,  their  exposition  would  afford 
us  all  a  powerful  encouragement. 

"Among  the  questions  which  have  still  to  be  ex- 
amined have  been  cited : 

"  I.  The  precise  designation  of  the  basis  of  opera- 
tion to  be  acquired  on  the  coast  of  Zanzibar,  and 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  either  by  conventions 
with  the  chiefs,  or  by  purchase  or  leases  from  private 
persons. 


Genesis  of  Mid-African  Civilisation        1 1 

"2.  Designation  of  the  routes  to  be  opened  in 
their  order  towards  the  interior,  and  of  the  stations 
— hospitable,  scientific,  and  pacifying — to  be  organ- 
ised, as  the  means  of  abohshing  slavery,  of  estab- 
lishing concord  among  the  chiefs,  of  procuring  for 
them  just  and  distinguished  judges,  etc. 

"  3 .  The  creation — the  work  being  well  defined — 
of  an  International  and  Central  Committee,  and  of 
National  Committees  to  prosecute  the  execution, 
each  in  what  will  directly  concern  it,  by  placing  the 
object  before  the  public  of  all  countries,  and  b}^ 
making  an  appeal  to  the  charitable  that  no  good 
cause  has  ever  addressed  in  vain. 

"Such  are,  gentlemen,  the  different  points  which 
seem  to  merit  your  attention.  If  there  are  others, 
they  will  appear  in  the  course  of  your  discussions, 
and  you  w411  not  fail  to  throw  light  on  them. 

"M}^  desire  is  to  serve,  as  you  shall  point  out  to 
me,  the  great  cause  for  which  you  have  already  done 
so  much.  I  place  myself  at  your  disposal  for  this 
purpose,  and  offer  you  a  cordial  welcome." 

The  object  of  the  Conference,  thus  clearly  out- 
lined by  the  King,  was  loyally  adhered  to  by  the 
delegates,  their  discussions  being  strictl}^  confined 
to  geography  and  philanthropy,  nothing  political  or 
personal  obtrtiding  itself  upon  their  deliberations. 
At  the  close  of  its  three  days'  session  the  Conference 
submitted  to  King  Leopold  the  following  declaration 
upon  its  labours: 

In  order  to  attain  the  object  of  the  International  Con- 
ference of  Brussels — that  is  to  say,  to  explore  scientifically 


12  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  unknown  parts  of  Africa,  to  facilitate  the  opening  of  the 
routes  which  shall  enable  civilisation  to  penetrate  into  the 
interior  of  the  African  Continent,  to  discover  the  means  for 
the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  among  the  Negro  race  in 
Africa — ^it  is  necessary : 

(i)  To  organise  on  a  common  international  plan  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  unknown  parts  of  Africa,  by  limiting  the  re- 
gions to  be  explored — on  the  east  and  on  the  west  by  the 
two  oceans,  the  Indian  and  the  Atlantic,  on  the  south  by  the 
basin  of  the  Zambesi,  on  the  north  by  the  frontiers  of  the  new 
Egyptian  territory  and  the  independent  Soudan.  The  most 
appropriate  mode  of  effecting  this  exploration  will  be  the 
employment  of  a  sufficient  number  of  detached  travellers, 
starting  from  different  bases  of  operation. 

(2)  To  establish,  as  bases  for  these  operations,  a  certain 
number  of  scientific  and  hospitable  stations  both  on  the  coasts 
and  in  the  interior  of  Africa — for  example,  at  Bagamoyo  and 
Loanda,  as  well  as  at  Ujiji,  Nyangwe,  and  other  points  al- 
ready known,  which  it  would  be  necessary  to  connect  by 
intermediate  stations. 

In  accordance  with  the  recommendation  contained 
in  this  declaration  of  the  Brussels  Geographical  Con- 
The  Out-  ference,  "  The  International  Association  for 
come  of  the  the  Exploration  and  Civilisation  of  Central 
Conference,  ^j^^^ "  ^^g  formed,  consisting  of  an  In- 
ternational Commission  sitting  in  Brussels,  assisted 
by  dependent  National  Committees  in  each  country. 
The  executive  power  of  the  International  Association 
was  vested  in  an  Executive  Committee,  of  which 
King  Leopold  was  appointed  President.  When  the 
British  Government  selected  Sir  Bartle  Frere  for  the 
Governorship  of  the  Cape,  it  became  necessary  for 
him  to  resign  his  position  as  a  member  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee,  the  vacancy  thus  created  being  filled 


Genesis  of  Mid-African  Civilisation        13 

by  an  American,  General  Sanford,  for  many  years 
United  States  Minister  at  Brussels. 

The  idea  of  an  International  Association  for  the 
Exploration  and  Civilisation  of  Central  Africa,  to 
which  the  Brussels  Geographical  Conference  had 
given  birth,  at  once  began  to  grow,  and  flourished 
amazingly.  Not  only  were  influential  committees 
formed  in  those  countries  which  had  sent  delegates 
to  the  Conference,  but  in  other  countries  as  well,  the 
United  States  among  them. 

To  show  how  keen  general  interest  in  the  civilisa- 
tion of  Central  Africa  had  now  become,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  cite  a  few  instances  of  the  powerful  sup- 
port given  to  the  National  Committees.  In  Spain, 
the  King;  in  Austria,  the  Archduke  Rudolph,  heir 
to  the  Austrian  throne;  in  Holland,  Prince  Henry  of 
the  Netherlands ;  in  Belgium,  the  Count  of  Flanders, 
brother  of  the  King;  all  became  Presidents  of  their 
respective  National  Committees.  Philanthropists, 
men  of  science,  all  who  were  in  any  way  interested  in 
the  world's  progress  towards  better  things,  accorded 
ungrudging  support  to  the  work  set  in  motion  by 
King  Leopold. 

The  civilisation  of  Central  Africa  had  now  begun 
in  earnest. 


CHAPTER  II. 

STANLEY,  AND  KING  LEOPOLD  IL'S  CONCEPTION  OF 
THE   CONGO  FREE  STATE 

IN  every  case  the  National  Committees  of  the  In- 
ternational Association  for  the  Exploration  and 
Civilisation  of  Central  Africa  displayed  extraor- 
dinary activity ;  but,  as  was  to  be  expected,  their  rate 
of  progress  was  measured  by  the  Belgian 
Belgian       Committee,  which  met,  for  the  first  time. 

Enterprise. 

on  the  6th  of  November,  1876,  in  Brussels, 
just  six  weeks  after  the  close  of  the  Brussels  Geo- 
graphical Conference  which  had  decreed  its  exist- 
ence. As  was  fitting  in  the  circumstances,  King 
Leopold  was  present  at  the  meeting,  and  delivered 
upon  that  occasion  a  speech  which  may  be  regarded 
as  an  amplification  of  his  Majesty's  previous  pro- 
nouncements on  the  situation,  now  in  some  measure 
become  political,  in  Central  Africa. 

' '  Gentlemen, ' '  said  King  Leopold, ' '  the  slave  trade, 
which  still  exists  over  a  large  part  of  the  African 
Continent,  is  a  plague-spot  that  every  friend  of 
civilisation  would  desire  to  see  disappear. 

"The  horrors  of  that  traffic,  the  thousands  of  vic- 
tims massacred  each  year  through  the  slave  trade, 
the  still  greater  number  of  perfectly  innocent  beings 
who,  brutally  reduced  to  captivity,  are  condemned  en 

14 


o 


> 
o 


Conception  of  the  Congo  Free  State       15 

masse  to  forced  labour  in  perpetuity,  have  deeply 
moved  all  those  who  have  even  partially  studied  this 
deplorable  situation,  and  concerting,  in  a  word,  for 
the  founding  of  an  International  Association  to  put 
an  end  to  an  odious  traffic  which  makes  our  epoch 
blush,  and  to  tear  aside  the  veil  of  darkness  which 
still  enshrouds  Central  Africa.  The  discoveries  due 
to  daring  explorers  permit  us  to  say  from  this  day 
that  it  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  the  richest 
countries  created  by  God. 

"The  Conference  of  Brussels  has  nominated  an 
Executive  Committee  to  carry  into  execution  its 
declaration  and  resolutions. 

"The  Conference  has  wished,  in  order  to  place 
itself  in  closer  relationship  with  the  public,  whose 
sympathy  will  constitute  our  force,  to  found,  in  each 
State,  National  Committees.  These  Committees, 
after  delegating  two  members  from  each  of  them  to 
form  part  of  the  International  Committee,  will  popu- 
larise in  their  respective  countries  the  adopted 
programme. 

"The  work  has  already  obtained  in  France  and 
Belgium  important  subscriptions,  which  make  us  in- 
debted to  the  donors.  These  acts  of  charity,  so 
honourable  to  those  who  have  rendered  them,  stimu- 
late our  zeal  in  the  mission  we  have  undertaken. 
Our  first  task  should  be  to  touch  the  hearts  of  the 
masses,  and,  while  increasing  our  numbers,  to  gather 
in  a  fraternal  union,  little  onerous  for  each  member 
but  powerful  and  fruitful  by  the  accumulation  of 
individual  efforts  and  their  results. 

"The  International  Association  does  not  pretend 


1 6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

to  reserve  for  itself  all  the  good  that  could  or  ought 
to  be  done  in  Africa.  It  ought,  especially  at  the 
commencement,  to  forbid  itself  a  too  extensive  pro- 
gramme. Sustained  by  public  sympathy,  we  hold 
the  conviction  that,  if  we  accomplish  the  opening  of 
the  routes,  if  we  succeed  in  establishing  stations 
along  the  routes  followed  by  the  slave  merchants, 
this  odious  traffic  will  be  wiped  out,  and  that  these 
routes  and  these  stations,  while  serving  as  fulcrums 
for  travellers,  will  powerfully  contribute  towards 
the  evangelisation  of  the  blacks,  and  towards  the  in- 
troduction among  them  of  commerce  and  modem 
industry. 

"We  boldly  affirm  that  all  those  who  desire  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  black  races  are  interested  in 
our  success. 

"The  Belgian  Committee,  emanating  from  the 
International  Committee,  and  its  representative  in 
Belgium,  will  exert  every  means  to  procure  for  the 
work  the  greatest  number  of  adherents.  It  will  as- 
sist my  countrymen  to  prove  once  more  that  Bel- 
gium is  not  only  a  hospitable  soil,  but  that  she  is  also 
a  generous  nation,  among  whom  the  cause  of  hu- 
manity finds  as  many  champions  as  she  has  citizens. 

"I  discharge  a  very  agreeable  duty  in  thanking 
this  assembly,  and  in  warmly  congratulating  it  for 
having  imposed  on  itself  a  task  the  accomplishment 
of  which  will  gain  for  our  country  another  brilliant 
page  in  the  annals  of  charity  and  progress." 

We  have  here,  in  his  Majesty's  own  words,  a  very 
lucid  and  reiterated  exposition  of  King  Leopold's  main 
object  in  concerning  himself  with  Central  African 


Conception  of  the  Congo  Free  State       1 7 

affairs — the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  with  con- 
sequent moral  and  material  advancement  of  its 
peoples.  But  let  it  not  be  lost  sight  of  that,  subsidi- 
ary to  this  lofty  mission.  King  Leopold  has  never 
disavowed — nay,  his  Majesty  had  more  than  once 
expressly  declared  it — his  desire  to  find  in  Africa 
new  markets  for  Belgian  manufactures,  and  a  wide 
field  for  the  surplus  population  of  overcrowded  little 
Belgium,  where  his  people  might  live  and  where  their 
peculiar  genius  in  the  arts  and  sciences  might  flourish 
unfettered  by  alien  laws. 

The  experience  of  recent  travellers,  and  particu- 
larly of  Livingstone  and  Stanley,  had  demonstrated 
the  truth  of  what  had  hitherto  always  been 
disbelieved,  viz.,  that  it  was  possible  for  the   ^!^    ^^*®/ 

'  '  ^  Disproved. 

white  man  to  live  and  maintain  his  health 
in  Central  Africa.  This  fact  alone  was  of  vast  im- 
portance ;  but  when  was  added  to  it  proof  that  the 
country  was  fertile,  with  immense  natural  sources  of 
wealth,  needing  only  the  brain  and  hand  of  civilised 
man  to  tap  them,  a  prosperous  future  for  the  country 
was  assured.  England,  France,  and  Portugal,  but 
notably  England,  had  already  claimed  large  sections 
of  Africa  for  their  own,  and  Italy  and  Germany — 
especially  Germany — were  feverishly  anxious  to  fol- 
low suit.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  among  all  the  students 
of  the  African  problem— and  they  numbered  among 
them  the  ablest  of  every  nation — there  was  at  this 
period  another  man  with  prescience  to  foresee,  as 
we  now  know  King  Leopold  must  have  foreseen,  the 
illimitable  possibilities  of  Central  Africa.  Indeed  it 
is  tolerably  certain  that  had  the  great  nations  realised 


1 8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  potential  value  of  this  region,  their  cupidity  would 
never  have  permitted  them  to  allow  its  sovereignty 
to  become  vested  in  any  single  individual  with  claim 
to  it  based  upon  anything  except  irresistible  material 
force.  King  Leopold's  claim,  as  we  have  already 
partly  seen,  and  as  will  presently  be  fully  demon- 
strated, had  for  its  foundation  a  long-cherished  and 
active  philanthropic  interest  in  the  welfare  of  its 
natives,  chiefly  in  the  form  of  the  suppression  of 
slavery;  the  expenditure,  out  of  his  Majesty's  private 
purse,  of  large  sums  of  money  for  exploration,  estab- 
lishment of  route  stations,  etc. ;  and  generally  for 
calling  the  attention  of  the  civilised  world  to  a  little - 
known  and  less-cared-for  region  commonly  thought 
to  be  worthless. 

Bacon  asserts,  in  his  Advancement  of  Learning, 
that  "States  are  great  engines  moving  slowly,"  and 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world  until  long  past  the 
English  philosopher's  time,  the  axiom  was  true;  but 
we  of  the  twentieth  century  inhabit  a  world  as  unlike 
the  world  that  Bacon  lived  in  as  modem  New  York 
is  unlike  the  city  that  Washington  Irving  described 
under  that  name.  The  teeming  millions  of  Europe 
are  ever  more  and  more  perplexed  by  the  problem 
of  how  to  live,  and  not  a  day  passes  but  the  cruel 
competition  of  life  waxes  fiercer  and  hotter.  New 
lands,  new  markets,  must  be  found — the  social  pres- 
sure in  the  older  nations  demands  it  as  a  prime 
necessity.  Therefore  comes  it  that  States  are  no 
longer  "engines  moving  slowly."  On  the  contrary, 
they  move  very  rapidly;  and  as  all  the  fat  lands  of 
the  earth  have  already  been  appropriated,  future 


FlWr 


Conception  of  the  Congo  Free  State       19 

trouble  seems  not  improbable.  John  Bull,  early  in 
the  field,  worked  hard  painting  the  map  red,  and 
now  it  is  not  possible  to  get  far  away  from  one  or 
other  of  his  frontiers.  The  British  colossus  has 
many  imitators;  but  these  started  in  the  game  late, 
when  most  of  the  prizes  had  been  won. 

No  sooner  was  it  perceived  that  the  Congo  region 
of  Central  Africa  is  a  valuable  possession,  than 
France  set  up  her  flag  on  the  Congo,  at  universal 
Brazzaville.     The  Portuguese,   rummaging  Land 

in  their  musty  archives  for  traces  of  their  unger. 
past  glory,  set  up  a  claim  to  the  Congo  River  be- 
cause one  of  her  navigators  had  discovered  the 
mouth  of  it  five  hundred  years  ago.  Germany,  too, 
now  exhibited  her  desire  for  huge  territorities  in 
East  Africa,  and  did  not  betray  any  marked 
scrupulousness  as  to  whose  rights  were  invaded  in 
obtaining  them.  With  such  neighbours  pressing 
closely  upon  him,  it  was  no  more  than  natural  that 
King  Leopold  should  cast  about  him  how  best  he 
might  preserve  inviolate  the  great  country  to  which 
he  had  so  lavishly  devoted  his  time  and  money; 
and  he  finally  conceived  the  idea  of  a  Congo  Free 
State,  with  himself  as  its  Sovereign  ruler.  With- 
out some  such  clear  recognition  of  Congo  terri- 
tory, and  of  his  own  personal  rights  in  respect  of  it, 
it  was  abundantly  clear  that  the  first  would  be 
filched  and  the  second  ignored.  For  King  Leopold 
to  proclaim  himself  Sovereign  ruler  of  the  Congo 
region  was,  of  course,  not  sufficient.  It  would  be 
necessary  to  secure  the  assent  to  that  course  of  all 
the  great  Powers  interested. 


20  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

It  was  a  momentous  time.  While  the  French  were 
estabUshing  themselves  on  Stanley  Pool,  Stanley  the 
man  was  working  in  the  interests  of  King  Leopold, 
travelling  through  the  Congo  country,  buying  land 
here  and  there,  establishing  stations,  and  making 
treaties  in  the  King's  name  with  native  chiefs. 

The  French  regarded  Stanley's  proceedings  with 
jealous  distrust,  and  in  France  the  question  was 
raised  whether  the  International  Association  for  the 
Exploration  and  Civilisation  of  Central  Africa  ought 
to  be  permitted  to  exercise  sovereign  rights.  That 
history  furnished  examples  of  corporate  bodies  exer- 
cising sovereign  authority  was  acknowledged,  but 
there  was  a  large  party  in  France  which  insistently 
asserted  that  no  such  right  pertained  to  the  Inter- 
national Association. 

The  situation  was  very  complicated.  If  King 
Leopold  recognised  the  preposterous  claim  of  Portu- 
gal over  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  River,  the  entire 
region  in  which  he  was  interested  would  be  with- 
out a  free  way  to  the  sea,  a  fatal  bar  to  its  proper 
development. 

To  deal  with  Portugal  in  this  matter,  even  sup- 
posing her  alleged  right  to  be  well  founded,  would 
have  presented  no  insuperable  difficulty;  poor  na- 
tions like  poor  individuals  being  ever  open  to  sell 
their  commodities  at  something  more  than  their 
market  value.  But  just  at  this  juncture  an  unex- 
pected act  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  added  enor- 
mously to  the  difficulty.  Lord  Granville,  at  that 
time  British  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs, 
after    having    refused   to    recognise    any   right    by 


Conception  of  the  Congo  Free  State       21 

Portugal  over  the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  in  return 
for  concessions  granted  by  Portugal  to  Britain  else- 
where, now  recognised  those  claims  in  an  extended 
form. 

This  Anglo -Portuguese  Convention,  made  on  the 
26th  of  February,  1884,  had  it  been  carried  out, 
would  have  killed  at  one  blow  the  International 
Association  for  the  Exploration  and  Civilisation  of 
Central  Africa,  and  all  King  Leopold's  cherished 
dreams  would  have  evaporated  like  mists  before 
the  sim. 

But  the  good  work  done  by  King  Leopold  was  not 
fated  to  be  so  ignominiously  extinguished.  France 
and  Germany  combined  to  denounce  the  joj^n  g^^ 
Convention ;  and  even  with  the  British  pub-  Compiais- 
lic  it  was  very  unpopular,  as  hard  things  ^^** 

being  said  of  it  in  the  British  Parliament  and  press 
as  any  uttered  in  Belgium.  King  Leopold  appealed 
to  the  British  Government  to  suspend  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  Convention,  urging  the  despatch  of  a 
British  mission  to  the  West  Coast  to  examine  the 
validity  of  the  treaties  made  between  his  Majesty's 
representatives  and  native  chiefs  in  that  part  of 
the  Congo  country  which  the  Convention  proposed 
to  acknowledge  as  Portuguese  territory.  The  Brit- 
ish Government  granted  the  King's  request,  and 
despatched  General  Sir  Frederic  Goldsmid  to  the 
Congo.  The  result  was  a  complete  triumph  for  King 
Leopold,  General  Goldsmid  reporting  to  his  Govern- 
ment that  the  treaties  were  in  perfect  order  and  that 
the  allegations  of  the  Portuguese  were  baseless.  That 
was  the  end  of  the  Anglo -Portuguese  Convention. 


22  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Though  the  Anglo -Portuguese  Convention  was 
dead,  and  nothing  remained  to  fear  from  it,  the 
incident  served  to  emphasise  the  great  and  growing 
necessity  for  endowing  the  Congo  region  with  a 
clearer  and  more  definite  political  status  than  it  yet 
possessed.  There  were  not  wanting  other,  and  hap- 
pier, incidents  pointing  the  same  moral.  On  April 
2  2,  1884,  the  United  States  officially  recognised  the 
flag  of  the  International  Association  as  that  of  a 
friendly  Government,  in  which  course  it  was  soon 
after  followed  by  France,  though  the  latter  country 
made  it  a  condition  of  its  acknowledgment  that  the 
Association  would  never  alienate  any  of  its  territory 
without  France  having  the  right  of  pre-emption .  Ger- 
many, entering  upon  joint  action  with  France  for  the 
first  time  since  the  war  of  1870,  concurred  in  recog- 
nising the  International  Association  as  an  independ- 
ent and  friendly  State ;  and  on  the  very  day  that  she 
gave  her  adherence  to  it,  she  invited,  through  Prince 
Bismarck,  all  the  Powers  interested  in  the  future  of 
Africa  to  confer  in  Berlin  with  the  object  of  regu- 
lating African  affairs.  The  invitation  was  accepted 
by  fourteen  nations,  whose  representatives  met  under 
circumstances  to  be  presently  described,  and  gave 
reality  to  the  grand  idea,  conceived  long  before  by 
Henry  Morton  Stanley  and  Leopold  II.,  King  of  the 
Belgians,  of  a  Congo  Free  State. 


CHAPTER  III 
FOUNDING  OF  THE  CONGO  FREE  STATE 

ON  the  15th  day  of  November,  1884,  the  In- 
ternational Conference,  convened  by  Prince 
Bismarck  to  regulate  what  that  statesman 
termed  "the  African  question,"  held  its  first  meeting. 
It  took  place  in  Berlin,  Prince  Bismarck  jj^g  qj.^^^ 
presiding.  In  briefly  outlining  the  object  Nations 
of  the  Conference,  the  distinguished  presi-  Agree, 
dent  exhibited  in  no  small  degree  that  condensa- 
tion and  lucidity  for  which  his  utterances  were  re- 
markable. 

The  Imperial  Government  [said  Prince  Bismarck]  has  been 
guided  by  the  conviction  that  all  the  Governments  invited 
here  share  the  desire  to  associate  the  natives  of  Africa  with 
civilisation,  by  opening  up  the  interior  of  that  continent  to 
commerce,  by  furnishing  the  natives  with  the  means  of  in- 
struction, by  encouraging  missions  and  enterprises  so  that 
useful  knowledge  may  be  disseminated,  and  by  paving  the 
way  to  the  suppression  of  slavery,  and  especially  of  the  slave 
trade  among  the  blacks,  the  gradual  abolition  of  which  was 
declared  to  be,  as  far  back  as  the  Vienna  Congress  in  18 14,  the 
sacred  duty  of  all  the  Powers.  The  interest  which  all  the 
civilised  nations  take  in  the  material  development  of  Africa 
assures  their  co-operation  in  the  task  of  regulating  the  com- 
mercial relations  with  that  part  of  the  world.  The  course 
followed  for  a  number  of  years  in  the  relations  of  the  Western 
Powers  with  the  countries  of  Eastern  Asia  having  up  to  this 

23 


24  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

moment  given  the  best  results  by  restraining  commercial 
rivalry  within  the  limits  of  legitimate  competition,  the  Gov- 
ernment of  His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor  has  considered 
it  possible  to  recommend  to  the  Powers  to  apply  to  Africa, 
in  the  form  appropriate  to  that  continent,  the  same  regimen, 
founded  on  the  equality  of  the  rights  and  the  solidarity  of  the 
interests  of  all  the  commercial  nations." 

Proceeding,  Prince  Bismarck  declared  that  the 
main  object  of  the  Conference  was  the  opening  up 
to  all  the  world  of  Central  Africa.  He  rejoiced  that 
France  was  in  perfect  accord  with  Germany  in  this 
matter.  The  first  thing  to  be  considered  in  this 
matter  was,  he  thought,  how  best  to  establish  free- 
dom of  trade  at  the  mouth  and  in  the  basin  of  the 
Congo.  On  that  subject  the  German  Government 
had  formulated  a  plan,  drawn  as  a  declaration,  de- 
signed to  assure  freedom  of  trade  in  that  region, 
with  equal  rights  for  all  nations, — monopolies  and 
preferential  duties  for  none. 

Prince  Bismarck  was  followed  by  the  British  re- 
presentative, Sir  Edward  Malet.  No  other  Power  in 
the  world,  said  Sir  Edward,  had  done  so  much  on 
behalf  of  the  objects  that  the  German  Government 
affected  to  have  at  heart  as  Great  Britain;  and  he 
went  on  to  point  out  that  the  warm  support  of  his 
country  and  Government  might  be  relied  upon  for 
proposals  which  had  always  formed  part  of  their 
policy.  He  hoped  that  the  attention  of  the  Confer- 
ence would  not  be  devoted  entirely  to  commerce, 
and  that  the  welfare  of  native  races  would  receive 
attention.  Freedom  of  trade  should  be  restricted  to 
legitimate  articles  of  trade,  or  the  natives  would  lose 
more  than  they  gained.     He  apprehended  that  the 


Founding  of  the  Congo  Free  State        25 

chief  difficulty  of  the  Conference  would  be,  not  to 
secure  its  unanimous  adherence  to  general  principles, 
but  to  provide  means  for  carrying  those  principles 
into  effect.  It  was  certainly  desirable  to  establish 
the  validity  of  effective  new  occupations  on  the  coasts 
of  Africa. 

The  Portuguese  representative  claimed  for  his 
country  the  honour  of  having  introduced  the  ele- 
ments of  civilisation  into  Africa,  and  saw  in  an 
increase  of  commerce  in  that  part  of  the  world  the 
assurance  of  peace  and  respect  for  the  rights  of 
humanity.  The  American  representative  contented 
himself  by  calling  attention  to  the  part  his  country 
had  taken  in  the  opening  of  Central  Africa,  and  re- 
ferred with  pride  to  the  achievements  of  Stanley, 
congratulating  his  countrymen  on  being  first  to  re- 
cognise the  good  work  accomplished  by  that  great 
philanthropist,  the  King  of  the  Belgians.  The  prac- 
tical business,  however,  of  the  sitting,  was  the  ques- 
tion, "What  territories  constitute  the  basin  of  the 
Congo  and  its  affluents  ?"  This  being  a  matter  less 
easily  disposed  of,  it  was  referred  to  a  Commission 
of  eight  experts  selected  by  the  eight  Powers  chiefly 
interested  in  its  solution. 

The  Commission  of  eight  reported  to  the  Confer- 
ence at  its  third  sitting  as  follows: 

The  Basin  of  the  Congo  is  delimited  by  the  crests  of  the 
contiguous  basins,  to  wit,  the  basins  in  particular  of  the 
Niari,  the  Ogowe,  the  Schari,  and  the  Nile,  on  the  north;  by 
the  Lake  Tanganyika,  on  the  east ;  by  the  crests  of  the  basins 
of  the  Zambesi  and  the  Loge,  on  the  south.  It  comprises 
consequently  all  the  territories  drained  by  the  Congo  and  its 


26  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

affluents,  including  Lake  Tanganyika  and  its  eastern  tribu- 
taries. 

This  report  seems  as  explicit  as  it  well  could  be, 
and  after  much  discussion  and  some  slight  modifi- 
cations it  was  adopted.  Baron  Lambermont  (Bel- 
gium) presented  a  report  upon  the  best  means  of 
safeguarding  the  welfare  of  the  native  races,  treating 
with  remarkable  ability  of  slavery,  the  importation 
of  alcohol  into  the  Congo  country,  and  other  dangers 
that  threaten  uncivilised  races  at  their  first  contact 
with  civilisation.  Count  Van  der  Straeten  Ponthoz 
(Belgium)  spoke  even  more  vigorously  to  the  same 
effect,  and  between  them  these  two  Belgian  subjects 
of  King  Leopold  showed  themselves  more  solicitous 
for  the  welfare  of  the  Congo  native  than  the  repre- 
sentative of  any  other  nationality  present. 

The  International  Conference  held  its  tenth  and 
last  sitting  on  the  26th  of  February,  1885.  As  on 
the  occasion  of  its  first  sitting,  Prince  Bismarck  pre- 
sided. The  drafting  of  the  final  act  of  the  Confer- 
ence was  ably  performed  by  Baron  LambeiTQont. 
The  representatives  of  the  Powers  assembled  at  Ber- 
lin signed  conventions  with  the  International  Asso- 
ciation, acknowledging  it  as  a  friendly  and  sovereign 
State  whose  flag — a  golden  five-pointed  star  on  a 
blue  banner — they  agreed  henceforth  to  recognise. 

I  am  sure  I  am  the  interpreter  [said  the  President  in  an- 
nouncing the  existence  of  these  treaties  to  the  Conference]  of 
the  unanimous  sentiment  of  the  Conference  in  saluting  as  a 
happy  event  the  communication  made  to  us  on  the  subject  of 
the  almost  completely  unanimous  recognition  of  the  Interna- 
tional Association  of  the  Congo.     All  of  us  here  render  justice 


Founding  of  the  Congo  Free  State        27 

to  the  lofty  object  of  the  work  to  which  His  Majesty  the  King 
of  the  Belgians  has  attached  his  name ;  we  all  know  the  efforts 
and  the  sacrifices  by  means  of  which  he  has  brought  it  to  the 
point  where  it  is  to-day;  we  all  entertain  the  wish  that  the 
most  complete  success  may  crown  an  enterprise  that  must  so 
usefully  promote  the  views  which  have  directed  the  Confer- 
ence." 

Thus  the  great  Bismarck.  Sir  Edward  Malet 
(Great  Britain)  said: 

The  part  which  Queen  Victoria's  Government  has  taken  in 
the  recognition  of  the  flag  of  the  Association  as  that  of  a 
friendly  Government  warrants  me  in  expressing  the  satisfac- 
tion with  which  we  regard  the  constitution  of  this  new  State, 
due  to  the  initiative  of  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Belgians. 
During  long  years  the  King,  dominated  by  a  purely  philan- 
thropic idea,  has  spared  nothing,  neither  personal  effort  nor 
pecuniary  sacrifice,  which  could  contribute  to  the  realisation 
of  his  object.  Yet  the  world  at  large  regarded  these  efforts 
with  an  eyfe  of  almost  complete  indifference.  Here  and  there 
his  Majesty  attracted  some  sympathy,  but  it  was  somehow 
rather  the  sympathy  of  condolence  than  that  of  encourage- 
ment. People  said  that  the  enterprise  was  beyond  his  re- 
sources, that  it  was  too  great  for  him  to  achieve  success.  We 
now  see  that  the  King  was  right,  and  that  the  idea  he  pursued 
was  not  Utopian.  He  has  brought  it  to  a  happy  conclusion, 
not  without  difficulties,  but  the  very  difficulties  have  made 
the  success  all  the  more  striking.  While  rendering  to  his 
Majesty  this  homage  by  recognising  all  the  difficulties  that 
he  has  surmounted,  we  salute  the  new-born  State  with  the 
greatest  cordiality,  and  we  express  the  sincere  desire  to  see  it 
flourish  and  grow  under  his  aegis. 

Baron  de  Courcel  (France)  said:  "The  new  State 
owes  its  origin  to  the  generous  aspirations  and  the 
enlightened  initiation  of  a  prince  surrounded  by  the 


28  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

respect  of  Europe."  Other  members  of  the  Confer- 
ence were  as  warm  as  the  representatives  of  Great 
Britain  and  France  in  their  eulogy  of  the  great  work 
achieved  by  King  Leopold,  and  their  opinions  of  his 
Majesty's  life-work  were  admirably  summed  up  by 
Prince  Bismarck  in  his  speech  closing  the  Confer- 
ence, in  the  course  of  which  he  referred  to  the  con- 
solidation of  the  Congo  Free  State  as  a  "precious 
service  to  the  cause  of  humanity," 

Central  Africa  had  now  become  in  all  essential 
respects  a  State.  It  had  been  recognised  as  such 
by  the  United  States  on  April  22,  1884,  seven 
months  before  the  opening,  and  ten  months  before 
the  close,  of  the  Berlin  Conference,  but  now  its  geo- 
graphical limits  were  defined,  its  political  status 
fixed,  its  neutrality  assured.  The  large  part  played 
by  Leopold,  King  of  the  Belgians,  in  its  creation  had 
received  full  and  complete  acknowledgment  from  the 
foremost  geographers  and  statesmen  of  the  world, 
who  had  united  in  lauding  the  King,  not  only  for  his 
wonderful  achievement,  but  for  the  high  humanitar- 
ian motive  stimulating  his  Majesty  through  all  the 
years  of  its  difficult  accomplishment. 

But  let  no  one  suppose  that  it  followed,  as  a  neces- 
sary consequence  of  all  this,  that  the  future  govern- 
ment of  Central  Africa  was  to  be  as  plain 
Ahead  ^^  Sailing  in  smooth  water.  A  new  State  had 
been  created,  it  is  true,  and  it  had  had  as 
its  sponsors  the  great  Powers  of  the  world,  who 
had  recognised  Leopold  IL,  King  of  the  Belgians, 
as  its  Sovereign  ruler.  But  it  is  beyond  the  ability 
of  States,  just  as  it  is  beyond  the  ability  of  indivi- 


Founding  of  the  Congo  Free  State       29 

duals,  to  exist  without  money,  and  to  be  entrusted 
with  the  government  of  a  territory  nearly  a  million 
square  miles  in  extent  —  about  a  fifth  the  size  of 
Europe,  or  a  third  of  the  United  States  —  inhabited 
by  twenty  millions  or  so  of  semi-barbarous  tribes, 
was  no  light  task.  The  ' '  African  Exploration  Fund ' ' 
of  the  Geographical  Society  of  London  contribu- 
ted ;^2  5o,  and  the  Belgian  Committee  collected 
among  their  countrymen  500,000  francs — a  gener- 
ous gift,  but  utterly  inadequate  for  such  a  colossal 
task  as  the  civilisation  of  Central  Africa.  Belgians, 
as  a  people,  were  in  no  degree  liable  for  the  expense 
of  the  philanthropic  colonial  enterprise  entered 
upon  by  Leopold,  their  King,  as  an  individual. 
The  magnitude  of  that  expense  will  be  apparent  to 
anybody  who  gives  the  subject  a  moment's  thought. 
The  payment  of  explorers, — men  of  the  first  rank  in 
intellectual  attainment,  such  as  Stanley, — the  cost  of 
their  equipment  (stores,  carriers,  lake  steamers,  etc.), 
the  carving  out  of  routes,  establishment  of  stations, 
purchases  of  land  from  native  chiefs,  conciliatory 
gifts,  and  so  forth,  had  seriously  depleted  the  large 
private  fortune  of  King  Leopold. 

Though  all  civilised  countries  were  more  or  less 
interested  in  the  opening  up  of  Central  Africa,  less 
than  twenty  thousand  dollars  was  subscribed  out- 
side Belgium  for  that  object.  It  had,  therefore, 
some  years  before  the  Berlin  Conference,  become 
necessary  to  raise  money  for  the  continuation  of  the 
work.  On  November  25,  1878,  the  Comite  d' Etudes 
du  Haut-Congo  was  formed  in  Brussels,  with  King 
Leopold  as  honorary  president  and  Colonel  Strauch 


30  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

as  president.  The  Comite  was  really  a  company, 
and  it  had  a  capital  of  a  million  francs.  Thanks  no 
less  to  its  wise  direction  than  to  its  sufficient  capital, 
the  operations  of  the  Comite  were  attended  with  so 
much  success  that  it  soon  usurped  the  place  of  the 
International  i^rican  Association  as  principal  agent 
of  the  civilising  crusade  undertaken  by  King  Leopold. 
The  work  of  the  Comite  was  consolidated  and  greatly 
accelerated  by  the  General  Act  of  the  Berlin  Confer- 
ence, assuring  the  Sovereignty  of  the  Congo  State  to 
King  Leopold,  it  being  no  more  than  natural  that 
Belgians  should  have  increased  confidence  in  a  State 
secure  under  the  rule  of  their  own  King,  and  be  dis- 
posed to  invest  their  money  therein  more  freely 
than  when  the  form  of  its  government  was  matter 
of  doubt.  Though  much  still  remained  to  be  done, 
the  Congo  Free  State  had  now  been  founded,  and 
that  fact  of  itself  was  sufficient  to  inspire  confidence 
everywhere,  but  particularly  among  the  Belgian 
people,  whose  King  was  its  founder. 


CHAPTER  IV 
EARLY  BELGIAN  EXPEDITIONS 

HAVING  narrated  the  principal  political  circum- 
stances which  eventuated  in  the  founding  of 
the  Congo  Free  State,  it  now  becomes  neces- 
sary to  revert  to  an  earlier  period,  and  sketch  briefly 
the  various  Belgian  expeditions  to  whose  Cartography 
labours  are  so  largely  owing  our  knowledge  and 

of  the  geography  of  Central  Africa,  the  ^^^^'^'^*^°°- 
suppression  of  the  slave  trade  there,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  civilising  and  humanitarian  government 
by  Belgians. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  so  great  an 
enterprise  was  not  possible  of  achievement  without 
loss  of  life,  and  much  personal  sacrifice  and  suffering; 
that  many  men  of  high  intellectual  power  and  in- 
domitable courage  fell  by  the  way,  martyrs  to 
<Usease,  treachery,  and  the  innumerable  accidents  by 
flood  and  field  which  ever  dog  the  footsteps  of  pio- 
neer explorers.  The  official  records  of  the  expedi- 
tions, for  the  most  part  vouched  for  by  independent 
testimony  (chiefly  Enghsh),  establish  beyond  possi- 
bility of  dispute  the  patient  forbearance  and  human- 
ity of  the  explorers  in  their  dealings  with  the  natives. 
The  dignity  of  truth  is  lost  with  too  much  protesting, 
and  that  some  few  mistakes  were  committed  here 

31 


32  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

and  there,  the  result  of  over-zealousness  on  the  part 
of  particular  individuals,  is  frankly  admitted,  such 
admission  in  no  way  detracting  from  the  confident 
assertion  that  no  exploration  of  unknown  lands  had 
ever  before  been  made  which  occasioned  so  small  an 
amount  of  friction  with  their  indigenous  occupiers. 
A  sound  discretion  is  not  so  much  indicated  by  never 
making  a  mistake  as  by  never  repeating  it.  Mis- 
take, error,  is  the  discipline  through  which  we  all  ad- 
vance, and  the  greatest  of  faults  is  to  be  conscious 
of  none. 

The  first  Belgian  expedition  arrived  at  Zanzibar  in 
December,  1877,  having  been  three  months  on  its 
voyage  from  Ostend.  It  was  commanded 
*  by  Captain  Crespel,  an  officer  of  the  Belgian 
Army,  and  included,  besides  Lieutenant  Cambier,  also 
of  the  Belgian  Army,  Dr.  Maes,  and  M.  Mamo,  an 
Austrian.  Some  time  was  spent  by  these  explorers 
in  Zanzibar,  purchasing  supplies  and  engaging  an 
escort,  before  starting  for  the  interior;  a  task  in 
which  they  were  assisted  by  the  Sultan,  Seyyid 
Burghash,  an  enlightened  ruler,  opposed  to  slavery 
and  sympathetic  with  the  expedition  and  its  objects. 
Unfortunately,  these  favourable  auspices  were  not 
followed  by  correspondingly  happy  events.  In  less 
than  a  month  after  the  arrival  of  the  expedition  in 
Zanzibar,  Dr.  Maes  was  dead  of  fever ;  and  Captain 
Crespel,  who  was  ill  from  the  first  moment  that  he 
set  foot  on  African  soil,  survived  Dr.  Maes  only  a 
few  days. 

Shortly  before  these  two  sad  events,  Cambier  and 
Mamo  had  started  on  their  journey  into  the  interior, 


Early  Belgian  Expeditions  33 

and  at  once  became  the  victims  of  every  sort  of  mis- 
fortune. Their  cattle  were  tormented  and  destroyed 
by  the  tsetse  fly,  which  in  that  year  assumed  the  pro- 
portions of  a  plague,  and,  their  route  lying  through 
a  marshy  region,  progress  was  rendered  impossible. 
Two  months  later  they  returned  to  Zanzibar  worn 
out  and  dispirited,  having  achieved  nothing,  only 
to  be  greeted  by  the  melancholy  news  of  the  death  of 
Captain  Crespel  and  Dr.  Maes.  Command  of  the 
expedition  now  devolved  upon  Lieutenant  Cam- 
bier,  who  resolved  to  await  reinforcements  from 
Belgium. 

It  was  not  until  September  of  the  following  year 
that  Lieutenant  Cambier,  accompanied  by  Lieuten- 
ant Wautier  and  Dr.  Dutrieux,  ventured  to  move 
forward.  On  the  occasion  of  his  second  attempt  he 
started  from  Bagamoyo.  His  difficulties,  if  not  so 
great  as  on  his  previous  journey,  would  have  daunted 
any  ordinary  mortal.  His  native  carriers  gave  great 
trouble,  continually  deserting  or  threatening  to  de- 
sert him,  while  crossing  the  Mgonda-Mkali  desert. 
However,  after  passing  through  infinite  danger  and 
difficulty,  Cambier  succeeded  in  reaching  the  terri- 
tory of  Mirambo,  and  prospered  so  well  in  his  efforts 
to  secure  the  friendship  and  assistance  of  that  power- 
ful chief  that  the  two  entered  into  a  treaty  of  al- 
liance, and  went  through  the  strangely  barbarous 
ceremony  of  taking  the  oath  of  blood;  after  which, 
according  to  African  superstition  and  custom,  they 
became  brothers.  This  was  the  first  example  of  a 
Belgian  officer  and  a  native  chief  takmg  the  oath  of 
blood.     It  was  entered  into  by  Cambier  only  after 


34  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

he  had  informed  himself  that  it  was  a  ceremony  the 
sanctity  of  which  the  Negro  race  held  to  be  in- 
violable, and  was  therefore  exactly  suited  to  his 
purpose. 

The  object  of  the  expedition  was  to  found  a  sta- 
tion on  the  shores  of  Lake  Tanganyika.  Having 
been  provided  with  some  necessary  supplies  by  his 
newly  made  "blood  brother,"  M.  Cambier  was  about 
to  resume  his  journey,  of  which  another  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  remained,  when  he  learned  with  consterna- 
tion of  the  death  of  M.  Wautier,  the  able  lieutenant 
to  whoin  he  had  entrusted  the  difficult  task  of  keep- 
ing open  his  communications  with  the  coast,  who 
had  succumbed  to  the  climate  after  prolonged  ex- 
posure to  torrential  rain.  M.  Wautier  was  the  third 
Belgian  who  had  lost  his  life  in  the  cause  of  African 
exploration.  His  place  was  taken  by  M.  Bryon,  a 
Swiss  traveller  of  much  experience,  who  rendered 
good  and  faithful  service.  But  though  so  near  to 
his  destination,  M.  Cambier's  difficulties  were  by  no 
means  ended.  As  before,  it  was  his  carriers  who 
made  the  trouble.  They  were  insubordinate,  quar- 
relled among  themselves,  and  deserted  in  great 
numbers,  on  the  slightest  provocation,  and  often 
for  none  at  all.  Finally,  however,  on  August  12, 
1879,  Karema,  on  Lake  Tanganyika,  was  reached  in 
safety,  and  the  first  station  of  the  International  As- 
sociation for  the  Exploration  and  Civilisation  of  Cen- 
tral Africa  established  by  the  Belgian  Committee. 
The  site  chosen  for  the  station  was  about  five  thou- 
sand acres  of  land,  very  healthfully  situated,  which 
Cambier  obtained  by  treaty  with  a  local  chief.    Thus 


A  Saddle  Ox,  Kassai. 


European  Travelling  in  the  Uelle  District. 


Early  Belgian  Expeditions  35 

through  difficulty  and  danger,  by  the  expenditure 
of  energy,  money,  and  of  life  itself,  was  the  object 
of  the  first  Belgian  expedition  successfully  accom- 
plished, and  M.  Cambier  set  out  to  return  to  Belgium. 
When  he  reached  the  coast  he  was  surprised  to  meet 
a  second  expedition,  of  whose  existence  he  knew 
nothing,  which  had  just  arrived  from  Belgium.  In 
consequence,  M,  Cambier  decided  not  to  return  to 
Europe,  but  to  remain  in  Africa  for  a  while  to  assist, 
so  far  as  he  was  able,  in  this  second  enterprise.  The 
period  was  May,  1879.  The  new  expedition,  under 
command  of  Captain  Popelin,  of  the  Headquarters 
Staff,  assisted  by  Dr.  Van  den  Heuval  and  Lieuten- 
ant Dutalis,  had  not  completed  their  arrangements 
for  their  inland  journey  when  the  latter  fell  ill  and 
was  obliged  to  return  at  once  to  Belgium.  The  ex- 
pedition had  brought  with  it  four  Indian  elephants, 
attended  by  two  English  keepers  accustomed  to  the 
management  of  those  animals,  it  having  been  sug- 
gested to  King  Leopold  that  elephants  were  better 
adapted  for  transport  purposes  in  Central  Africa 
than  oxen.  The  experiment  proved  a  costl}^  failure. 
All  four  of  the  elephants  died  before  any  use  could 
be  made  of  them,  and  their  English  keepers  were 
waylaid  by  brigands  and  murdered  on  their  way 
back  to  Zanzibar.  Notwithstanding  these  misfor- 
tunes, MM.  Cambier  and  Popelin  persevered  bravely 
with  their  task,  stocked  the  station  at  Karema  with 
provisions,  and  organised  a  native  guard  for  its  pro- 
tection. 

The  third  expedition,  judged  by  results,  hardly  de- 
serves to  be  called  such.     It  consisted  of  only  two 


36  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Belgians  (MM.  Burdo  and  Roger),  and  the  health  of 
the  former  breaking  down  immediately  on  his  arrival 
at  Zanzibar,  he  was  obliged  to  return  home  at  once. 
War  was  now  being  waged  between  the  chiefs  Mir- 
ambo  and  Simba ;  but  though  each  of  the  contestants 
was  friendly  to  the  Belgians,  the  conflict  rendered 
their  position  very  precarious.  In  the  circumstan- 
ces, MM.  Cambier  and  Popelin  judged  it  expedi- 
ent to  divide  their  forces,  so  as  to  ensure  efficient 
protection  for  the  newly  founded  station  at  Karema, 
and  the  route  thence  to  the  coast. 

While  matters  were  standing' thus,  a  fourth  expe- 
dition arrived,  the  strongest  and  be^st  equipped  yet 
sent  out  b}^  Belgium,  commanded  by  Captain  Ra- 
maeckers,  an  experienced  African  traveller,  skilled  in 
native  wiles,  who  had  been  more  successful  in  his 
dealing  with  the  black  man  than  any  other  Belgian. 
Captain  Ramaeckers  was  ably  seconded  by  MM. 
Becker  and  De  Leu,  lieutenants  in  the  Belgian  Artil- 
lery, and  an  expert  photographer.  The  moment  of 
the  arrival  of  this  expedition  was  opportune,  for  the 
difficulties  of  MM.  Cambier  and  Popelin,  due  to  the 
war  between  the  natives,  increased  daily,  and  they 
were  in  a  bad  way.  Captain  Ramaeckers  made  all 
possible  haste  to  succour  them,  and  after  a  perilous 
journey  succeeded  in  joining  his  colleagues  on  the 
banks  of  Lake  Tanganyika ;  but  he  lost  by  death  on 
the  way  his  brave  lieutenant,  De  Leu,  a  victim  of 
malarial  fever,  and  the  health  of  the  photographer 
failed  so  completely  that  it  was  found  necessary  to 
send  him  home.  Captain  Ramaeckers  now  took 
over  the  command  from  Lieutenant  Cambier,  who 


Early  Belgian  Expeditions  37 

had  carried  on  the  work  in  Central  Africa  for  three 
years,  and  was  now  desirous  of  returning  to  Europe. 
In  that  period  Cambier  had  contrived  to  achieve 
much  valuable  work,  of  which  the  worth  is  more 
apparent  to-day  than  it  was  in  December,  1880, 
when  he  resigned  his  command.  But  in  estimating 
its  value,  then  or  now,  the  enormous  difficulties  under 
which  he  laboured  should  never  for  a  moment  be 
lost  sight  of.  These  difficulties  were  so  great  as 
hardly  to  admit  of  exaggeration.  Language  is  inade- 
quate to  convey  any  just  conception  of  the  trackless 
deserts,  impenetrable  forests,  and  malarial  swamps, 
through  which  the  explorers'  route  lay,  complicated 
by  two  friendly  but  warring  tribes,  each  suspicious 
•of  the  strangers'  relations  with  the  other. 

Popelin  and  Ramaeckers,  unlike  Cambier,  were 
not  destined  to  see  their  native  land  again.  Eighteen 
months  after  the  departure  of  Cambier,  Popelin  died 
of  malarial  fever,  and  a  short  while  after  Ramaeckers 
also,  from  a  like  cause.  In  spite  of  these  terrible 
losses,  the  Belgian  station  continued  to  exist,  and 
even  prospered  in  its  work.  The  command  now  de- 
volved upon  Lieutenant  Storms,  then  on  his  way  to 
Central  Africa  to  establish  a  new  station  on  the 
western  shore  of  Lake  Tanganyika.  When  Storms 
arrived  and  took  command  he  chose  as  the  site  of 
the  new  station  a  spot  called  Mpala,  immediately 
opposite  Karema.  The  chief  of  the  district,  who 
himself  bore  the  name  of  Mpala,  proved  friendly  to 
the  expedition,  and  the  new  station  soon  became  as 
important  as  Karema  itself.  So  great  was  the  influ- 
ence exerted  by  Storms  over  Mpala  that  that  chief, 


3^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

when  dying,  left  the  appointment  of  his  successor  to 
be  determined  by  the  Belgian  officer.  Storms  showed 
himself  a  clever  diplomatist,  and  during  his  two- 
and-a-half -years'  control  did  much  to  consolidate  the 
work  of  his  predecessors. 

So  far,  we  have  seen,  these  expeditions  were  ex- 
clusively Belgian.  They  owed  their  inception  to 
King  Leopold,  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  heavy 
expense  they  entailed  was  met  out  of  his  Majesty's 
private  purse,  and  the  personnel  was  Belgian  almost 
to  a  man.  Humanitarian  in  their  object,  the  expe- 
ditions had  been  conducted  so  humanely  that  no 
injury  had  resulted  to  any  one  for  which  the  expedi- 
tions could  be  blamed.  With  the  exception  of  the 
two  English  elephant -keepers,  murdered  by  Arab* 
brigands,  the  loss  of  life  was  wholly  Belgian,  result- 
ing in  every  case  from  the  trying  climate  of  Equa- 
torial Africa. 

But  before  any  Belgian  expedition  had  started, 
Henry  M.  Stanley,  the  great  Anglo-American  travel- 
ler, had  penetrated  Africa  as  far  as  the 
Journalist,  rnouth  of  the  Congo,  and  had  startled  the 
world  by  the  information  contained  in  his 
letters  addressed  thence  to  the  New  York  Herald  and 
the  London  Daily  Telegraph.  In  glowing  and  in- 
cisive language  Stanley  demonstrated  the  future 
commercial  importance  of  the  superb  Congo  River, 
and  significantly  pointed  out  that,  so  far,  no  Euro- 
pean power,  except  Portugal,  had  put  forth  any  claim 
to  its  control — a  claim  which  England,  France,  and 
the  United  States  had  refused  to  recognise. 

This  pregnant  statement  excited  widespread  re- 


Early  Belgian  Expeditions  39 

mark,  but  the  King  of  the  Belgians  was  alone  in 
acting  upon  the  startling  information.  His  Majesty 
invited  Mr.  Stanley  to  Brussels  to  confer  with  some 
distinguished  geographers,  merchants,  and  financiers; 
and  out  of  that  meeting  grew  the  Comite  d^ Etudes  dti 
Haut-Congo,  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  an 
earlier  chapter.  Soon  after,  however,  the  name  of 
this  body  was  changed  to  that  of  the  International 
Association  of  the  Congo.  Mr.  Stanley  was  invited 
to  enter  its  service,  and  to  establish  along  the  Congo 
a  series  of  stations,  designed  as  bases  for  future 
operations,  humanitarian  and  commercial,  t.  e.,  sup- 
pression of  the  slave  trade  and  securing  the  com- 
merce of  the  Congo  country. 

How  Stanley  accepted  that  invitation,  and  car- 
ried out  the  mission  which  the  King  of  the  Belgians 
entrusted  to  him,  is  almost  as  well  known  as  the 
story  of  the  same  intrepid  traveller's  discovery  of 
Dr.  Livingstone  a  few  years  before.  With  only  ten 
companions  (five  Belgian,  two  English,  two  Danish, 
and  one  French),  Stanley  left  Europe  in  January, 
1879.  ^t  Zanzibar  he  hoped  to  be  reinforced  by  at 
least  some  of  those  who  had  been  associated  with  him 
on  his  previous  journey.  Meanwhile  the  steam- 
boats En  Avant  and  Royal,  the  twin-screw  steamer 
La  Belgtque,  one -screw  barge  Young  Africa,  and 
two  steel  lighters,  were  sent  direct  from  Bel- 
gium to  the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  there  to  await 
Stanley's  coming.  Stanley  recruited  a  hundred  and 
forty  blacks  (Askaris  and  Kabindas),  to  say  nothing 
of  carriers,  whom  he  obtained  as  he  required  them 
during  his  progress  along  the  Congo. 


40  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  first  station  to  be  founded  was  Vivi,  and  six 
months  were  spent  in  fortifying  it.  Then  came  the 
construction  of  a  road  from  Vivi  to  Isang- 
Pioneering.  ^^^^  —  ^^Y  ^^^^  higher  Up  the  rivcr  —  re- 
quired for  the  conveyance  of  the  steamers 
in  section,  stores,  merchandise,  etc.  This  proved  a 
formidable  task  and  took  a  whole  year  to  accom- 
plish. But  Stanley  and  his  men  proved  equal  to  it, 
and  another  station  was  founded  at  Isanghila.  At 
that  station,  fortunately,  the  Congo  was  again  found 
to  be  navigable,  and  Stanley  pushed  on  to  Manyanga 
by  boat,  where  he  founded  a  third  station.  It  was 
while  at  Manyanga  that  Stanley  first  learned  of  M. 
de  Brazza's  having  set  up  the  French  flag  on  the 
northern  shore  of  Stanley  Pool,  and  calling  it  Brazza- 
ville, a  fact  previously  referred  to. 

Stanley  countered  this  act  by  founding,  on  the 
plain  of  Kintamo,  near  the  lake,  a  station  out  of 
which  has  grown  the  modem  Leopold ville,  named  in 
honour  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  and  now  recog- 
nised as  the  capital  of  Central  Africa. 

The  spread  of  French  influence  so  far  as  Brazza- 
ville was  significant  and  ominous.  Clearly  the  na- 
tions of  Europe  were  waking  up  to  the  importance 
and  value  of  Central  Africa.  Leaving  the  expedition 
in  charge  of  Captain  Hanssens,  Stanley  hurriedly 
returned  to  Brussels  to  report  the  circumstance 
in  person.  That  was  in  April,  1882;  and  by  Febru- 
ary, 1883,  he  was  back  again  with  the  expedition 
in  Africa,  recharged,  as  it  were,  with  energy,  and 
busied  himself  in  establishing  numerous  stations. 

In  all,  Stanley  served  five  years  with  this  expedi- 


Early  Belgian  Expeditions  41 

tion,  which,  notwithstanding  his  nationality,  must  in 
all  fairness  be  accounted  a  Belgian  expedition. 

Such,  then,  were  the  early  expeditions  in  Central 
Africa  undertaken  by  Leopold,  King  of  the  Belgians. 
There  were  other  contemporaneous  expeditions  in 
the  same  region  undertaken  by  France,  Germany, 
and  Russia,  or  rather  by  natives  of  those  countries 
presumably  working  in  the  interest  of  their  respec- 
tive nations,  but  their  results  will  not  stand  com- 
parison with  those  achieved  by  Belgians.  At  one 
time  it  was  the  intention  of  King  Leopold  to  appoint 
General  Gordon  to  the  chief  command  on  the  Congo, 
and  that  extraordinary  man  had  agreed  to  accept 
his  Majesty's  offer;  but  the  British  Government  had 
a  prior  claim  on  Gordon's  services,  who  went  to 
Khartoum  and  lost  his  life  there  in  tragic  circum- 
stances so  well  known  that  they  need  not  be 
recounted  here. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  WATERWAYS  OF  THE  CONGO 

IT  was  Diego  Cam,  an  intrepid  Portuguese  navi- 
gator, who,  in  1484,  voyaging  towards  the  myth- 
ical East  Indies,  discovered  the  Congo.  In  the 
name  of  his  sovereign,  King  Juan  II.,  he  took  pos- 
Discovery  scssion  of  the  country,  though  it  does  not 
of  the  appear  that  he  proceeded  far  into  the  in- 
Congo.  terior.  From  nzadi,  the  native  name  for 
river,  the  Portuguese  formed  the  word  Zaire,  and  it 
is  by  this  name  that  the  river  was  long  called.  It 
so  appears  in  the  map  of  Martin  of  Bohemia,  who 
accompanied  the  expedition.  The  globe  prepared 
by  this  German  cosmographer  is  still  to  be  seen  in 
the  museimi  of  Nuremberg.  It  was  not  until  two 
centuries  later  that  the  river  was  called  Rio  de 
Congo. 

On  the  south  promontory  of  the  Delta  the  Portu- 
guese erected  a  pillar  to  commemorate  their  discov- 
ery. This  promontory  is  still  known  as  the  PadrSo 
Foreland.  It  is  certain  that  these  Portuguese,  who 
were  missionaries  before  they  were  explorers,  re- 
mained a  considerable  time  in  the  Delta;  for  they 
converted  the  King  of  Ekongo,  as  the  country  was 
then  called,  to  Christianity.  It  was  to  this  king 
that  the  sovereigns  of  Angolo  traced  descent,  and  it 

42 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  43 

is  significant  that  their  blue  banner  with  the  golden 
star  is  to-day  the  flag  of  the  Congo  Free  State. 

About  seven  years  after  the  first  expedition  a 
second  was  sent  out  from  Portugal,  and  the  ruins  of 
the  trading  posts  then  established,  called  San  An- 
tonio and  Salvador,  are  still  to  be  seen.  The  old 
Kingdom  of  Ekongo  continued  a  hundred  miles 
into  the  interior.  It  was  bounded  on  the  north  by 
N'zadi,  the  modem  Congo,  and  on  the  south  by  the 
river  Coanza.  The  accounts  of  the  early  traders, 
some  of  which  are  still  preserved  in  the  State  ar- 
chives of  Portugal,  abound  in  fanciful  descriptions. 
To  the  mediaeval  mind  the  forest  was  peopled  with 
mythical  monsters.  It  was  probably  for  this  reason 
that  the  superstitious  Portuguese  kept  so  near  the 
coast. 

In  1534  San  Salvador,  which  until  the  arrival  of 
the  Portuguese  was  known  as  Ambassa,  became  the 
seat  of  a  bishopric.  Here  a  cathedral  was  erected, 
but  later  the  see  was  transferred  to  St.  Paul  de 
Loanda,  which  thus  became  the  capital  of  the  Por- 
tuguese authority. 

In  1 784,  to  maintain  their  occupation  of  the  Congo, 
the  Portuguese  built  a  fort  at  Kabinda,  about  thirty 
miles  north,  of  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Several  slave 
stations  also  were  established  in  the  interior.  From 
this  position  they  were  soon  driven  by  the  French, 
though  the  latter  made  no  attempt  to  found  a  colony. 

In  18 1 6  the  British  Government  despatched  an 
expedition  to  the  Congo.  James  Kingston  Tuckey, 
the  leader,  explored  the  river  from  its  mouth  to 
a  distance  of   170  miles  into  the  interior.     In  his 


44  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

description  of  the  country  Tuckey  speaks  of  the 
numerous  slave  stations  along  the  banks.  At  this 
period  two  thousand  slaves  were  exported  annually. 
Fifty  years  later  this  number  had  increased  to  over 
one  hundred  thousand! 

The  Congo  with  its  multitudinous  branches  forms 
a  river -basin  unequalled  even  by  that  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. This  great  territory,  over  fourteen  hundred 
miles  in  breadth,  covers  an  area  of  nearly  a  million 
square  miles.  Though  mere  size  is  not  always  a 
measure  of  importance,  yet  this  region  is  unsur- 
passed, in  respect  to  natural  resources,  by  any  part 
of  the  world.  Second  only  to  the  Amazon  in  volume, 
the  Congo  precipitates  about  2,000,000  cubic  feet  of 
water  each  second  into  the  Atlantic. 

This  immense  basin  has  been  divided  by  geo- 
graphers into  three  gradual  terraces:  the  first  and 
lowest  is  near  the  coast ;  the  second,  in  the  region  of 
the  Upper  Congo;  and  the  highest  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  great  lakes.  According  to  the  official  Act  the 
basin  is  bounded  by  the  watersheds  of  the  neigh- 
bouring basins  of  the  Niari,  the  Ogowe,  the  Shari, 
and  the  Nile  on  the  north ;  by  the  eastern  watershed 
line  of  the  affluents  of  Lake  Tanganyika  on  the  east ; 
and  by  the  watersheds  of  the  basins  of  the  Zambesi 
and  the  Loge  on  the  south.  Congoland  is  about 
1,500,000  square  miles  in  extent.  From  its  western 
frontage  of  400  miles  it  broadens  eastward  until  at 
Lake  Tanganyika  it  has  a  frontier  of  about  1500 
miles. 

The  numerous  ramifications  of  the  Congo  open 
rapid  and  economic  channels  of  communication  to 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  45 

the  interior.  To  this  magnificent  system  of  waters 
the  country  also  owes  its  unequalled  fertility.  Many 
of  the  rivers  now  practically  useless  can  in  time  be 
rendered  navigable  by  the  skill  of  the  engineer. 
Where  blasting  out  channels  is  not  feasible  canals 
can  be  built  to  connect  the  navigable  parts  of  the 
stream.  It  is  obvious,  too,  that  the  effects  on  that 
torrid  climate  of  these  great  rivers,  from  one  to 
twenty  miles  in  breadth,  must  be  considerable. 
Without  them  the  country  would  be  an  arid  desert, 
another  Sahara,  deadly  to  life,  both  animal  and 
vegetable. 

We  shall  first  follow  the  successive  stages  of  the 
Congo,  as  the  Chambesi,  the  Luapula,  and  the  Lua- 
laba,  in  the  huge  watershed  on  the  eastern  border 
between  Lakes  Nyassa  and  Tanganyika. 

The  source  of  the  Congo  is  in  the  Chingampo 
Mountains,  in  British  territory,  and  about  50  miles 
from  the  western  confines  of  German  East 
Africa,  whence  it  issues  as  the  Chambesi.  ^^le  Congo. 
It  was  Livingstone  who,  in  1867,  discovered 
the  Chambesi.  Mistaking  it  for  the  undiscovered 
source  of  the  Nile,  he  explored  it  towards  the 
south-west — 250  miles — as  far  as  Lake  Bangweolo. 
Thence  he  followed  its  gradual  curve  to  the  north, 
first  as  the  Luapula,  through  Lake  Moero,  as  far 
as  Ankorro;  and  then  as  the  Lualaba,  in  a  north- 
westerly direction  to  Nyangwe,  1300  miles  from  its 
source.  The  river  assumes  the  distinctive  name  of 
the  Congo  first  at  Nyangwe.  It  was  from  this  place 
that  Stanley,  in  1876,  made  his  famous  descent  of 
the  river.     The  journey,  which  covered   1660  miles 


4^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

by  water  and  140  miles  by  land,  was  accomplished 
in  281  days. 

From  Nyangwe  the  river  flows  due  north  400 
miles  as  far  as  Stanley  Falls.  The  country  between 
these  two  places  is  peopled  by  the  cannibal  Bakumu, 
With  ' '  these  insensate  furies  of  savageland ' '  Stanley 
had  many  bloody  encounters.  "At  every  curve  of 
this  fearful  river,"  he  writes  in  his  now  famous  book, 
"the  yells  of  the  savages  broke  loud  on  our  ears,  the 
snake-like  canoes  dashed  forward  impetuously  to 
the  attack,  while  the  drums  and  horns  and  shouts 
raised  fierce  and  deafening  uproar." 

From  Stanley  Falls  the  river,  flowing  west  and 
north-west,  makes  a  huge  curve,  in  the  form  of  a 
horse-shoe,  to  Equateurville,  where  the  junction  of  the 
Congo  with  the  Ruki  takes  place.  Throughout  this 
immense  curve,  called  the  Middle  Congo,  and  as  far 
south  as  Leopoldville,  a  distance  of  1068  miles,  the 
river  is  navigable.  In  the  contiguous  territory  live 
the  Balolo,  or  "men  of  iron,"  forgers  of  metal  instru- 
ments. Famous  as  warriors,  they  are  also  noted  as 
clever  craftsmen,  and  are  valuable  allies  of  the  State. 

From  the  junction  of  Lake  Matumba  with  the 
Congo,  the  river,  flowing  south-west  about  450  miles 
to  Manyanga,  forms  the  boundary  between  the 
French  and  the  Belgian  possessions.  Thence  down 
to  Matadi  it  pursues  a  southerly  course  of  about  100 
miles  through  the  territory  of  the  State.  From 
Matadi,  whence  it  flows  westward  to  the  sea,  it  forms 
for  30  miles  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Portuguese 
Congo. 

At  Stanley  Pool  the  Congo  is  no  longer  navigable. 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  47 

Here,  gathering  the  full  force  of  its  waters,  the  now 
immense  river  ploughs  its  passage  for  over  200 
miles  through  the  Crystal  Mountains,  whence  by  a 
succession  of  plunges  it  bounds  down  to  Matadi, 
1800  feet  below. 

From  Matadi,  unobstructed  and  triumphant,  it 
hurls  the  overwhelming  volume  of  its  current  far 
into  the  Atlantic.  At  its  meeting  with  the  sea,  the 
Congo,  now  over  3000  miles  in  length,  is  fully  twenty 
miles  wide. 

Until  a  few  years  ago  there  was  considerable  con- 
troversy as  to  the  true  upper  course  of  the  Congo. 
This  has  been  at  last  established  by  the  explorations 
of  Delcommune,  Bia,  and  Brasseur;  and  it  is  now 
agreed  that  the  upper  course  is  that  continuation  of 
the  Chambesi  called  the  Luapula,  and  not  the  Lua- 
laba,  as  was  formerly  believed. 

The  Luapula,  the  boundary  between  the  Congo 
State  and  North-Eastem  Rhodesia,  and  navigable  for 
340  miles  above  Kassongo,  is  longer  than  the  Lua- 
laba.  It  is,  however,  inferior  to  the  latter  in  size 
and  in  the  number  and  importance  of  its  affluents. 
The  Lualaba  rises  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Congo 
territory,  about  fifty  miles  west  of  North-Western 
Rhodesia.  The  source  of  this  river  was  discovered 
by  Lieutenants  Derscheid  and  Francqui. 

Along  the  important  tributanes  of  the  Luapula  is 
the  Lufupa,  which  joins  it  not  far  below  Nzilo.  It 
is  at  the  Nzilo  gorge  that  the  first  cataracts  on  the 
Luapula  are  encountered.  They  continue  almost 
uninterruptedly  for  forty-three  miles.  Another  af- 
fluent of  the  Luapula  is  the  Lubudi,  a  considerable 


4^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

river  on  the  left,  which,  because  of  its  breadth  and 
volume,  was  at  first  mistaken  for  the  main  stream. 
The  next  important  tributary — the  Lufila — empties 
into  the  Luapula  at  Lake  Kassali.  It  flows  through 
the  fertile  country  of  the  Katanga. 

This  region,  noted  for  its  mineral  resources,  is 
described  by  travellers  as  "  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey."  It  was  first  explored  by  that  inde- 
fatigable pioneer,  Delcommune.  Until  a  few  years 
ago  the  Katanga  was  ruled  by  the  truculent  tyrant, 
Msiri.  Now  that  this  despot  is  dead,  the  country  is 
developing  rapidly.  The  climate  is  far  more  health- 
ful than  in  the  regions  around  the  Lower  or  Middle 
Congo.  The  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  advantageous 
climate  augur  a  brilliant  future  for  this  section  of 
the  State.  The  conditions  are,  in  fact,  well  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  the  white  race,  and  here,  no  doubt, 
eventually  will  be  established  cities  no  less  import- 
ant and  flourishing  than  those  of  Java.  Already  a 
railway  to  the  Katanga  is  being  constructed.  Great 
deposits  of  copper  are  known  to  exist  here,  and  it  is 
expected  that  the  development  of  these  resources 
will  begin  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  Central  Africa. 
By  the  railway,  Katanga  will  be  brought  within  six 
weeks  of  the  European  centres. 

In  this  vicinity  also  are  the  Kibala  Mountains, 
An  African  which  will,  no  doubt,  soon  attract  tourists 
Switzer-  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  beauties 
land.  q£  ^-[^^g  section  are  thus  described  by  their 

discoverer,  Delcommune : 

Seated  on  a  rock  of  sandstone,  eagerly  scanning  all  around 
us,  glancing  in  every  quarter,  we  were  astonished  by  this 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  49 

picture,  which  no  pencil  could  render.  None  of  the  loudly 
vaunted  beauties  of  Switzerland  and  the  Pyrenees,  where 
charming  scenery  nevertheless  exists,  could  rival  these  lost 
corners  of  the  Kibala  Mountains,  of  which  the  whole  effect,  in 
its  turn  picturesque  and  savage,  imposing  and  on  a  grand 
scale,  seemed  softened  and  rendered  pleasant  by  the  brilliant 
equatorial  vegetation. 

We  shall  now  briefly  refer  to  the  more  important 
tributaries  of  the  Congo  proper,  first  taking  up  those 
that  join  the  river  from  the  south. 

Of  these  the  Lomami  is  navigable  for  nearly  650 
miles.  Rising  in  the  Usamba  Plateau,  600  miles 
east  of  Lake  Moero,  it  runs  almost  parallel  to  the 
Congo  till  it  joins  that  stream  150  miles  west  of 
Stanley  Falls.  The  Lomami  varies  in  breadth  from 
60  to  400  yards.  In  places  it  has  a  depth  of  twenty 
feet,  and  it  is  destined  to  play  an  important  part  in 
the  development  of  this  part  of  the  continent.  It 
was  on  the  Lomami  that  one  of  those  entrenched 
camps  was  established  which  proved  so  effective  in 
the  expulsion  of  the  Arabs  and  suppression  of  the 
slave  trade.  The  many  tributaries  of  the  Lomami, 
some  of  which  are  navigable,  make  that  river  the 
natural  base  also  of  commercial  operations. 

The  next  southern  affluent  of  the  Congo  is  the 
Lulongo.  Rising  not  far  from  the  valley  of  the 
Lomami  it  flows  for  several  hundred  miles  in  a 
south-westerly  direction  and  empries  into  the  Congo 
at  Uranga.  A  northern  tributary  of  the  Lulongo  is 
the  Lopori.  Both  of  these  streams  are  rendered 
more  important  by  the  fact  that,  being  free  from 
obstruction,    they    are   navigable.      They   water    a 


50  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

beautiful  and  exceedingly  fertile  country,  some  of 
which  is  yet  unexplored. 

South  of  the  Lulongo  and  almost  parallel  to  it  is 
the  Ruki.  It  has  two  upper  courses  and  rises  near 
the  great  valley  of  the  Lomami.  The  Ruki  is  a 
wide,  open  river,  nearly  six  hundred  miles  in  length. 
It  empties  into  the  Congo  at  Equateurville,  and 
because  of  its  several  tributaries  it  renders  a  large 
territory  easily  accessible. 

But  the  largest  of  all  the  southern  affluents  is  the 
Kassai,  which  ranks  in  importance  next  to  the  Congo 
itself.  The  exact  course  of  the  Kassai  was  until 
recently  a  matter  of  considerable  speculation.  This 
has  now  been  definitely  determined,  and  the  San- 
kuru,  formerly  thought  by  some  geographers  to  be 
the  main  course  of  that  river,  is  now  known  to 
be  its  largest  affluent.  The  Kassai  rises  nearly  one 
thousand  miles  south  of  where  it  joins  the  Congo, 
near  the  Portuguese  possessions  in  the  south-west- 
ern corner  of  the  Congo  State.  Its  course  is  north, 
north-east,  and  north-west.  Navigable  from  Wiss- 
mann  Falls,  which  is  situated  about  midwa}^  its 
length,  it  forms  its  junction  with  the  Congo  not  far 
above  Stanley  Pool.  Joining  the  Kassai,  near 
Bokala,  is  the  river  Kwango,  which,  rising  in  the 
Portuguese  possessions,  flows  directly  northward 
for  several  hundred  miles.  The  Sankuru,  like  so 
many  other  of  the  Congo  rivers,  rises  in  the  Sambas 
Plateau.  Its  course  is  first  due  north,  then  west, 
and,  at  its  junction  with  the  Kassai,  is  an  im- 
posing stream,  almost  as  deep  and  broad  as  the 
Kassai  itself.     The  Lubefu,  a  northern  tributary  of 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  51 

the  Sankuru,  reaches  almost  to  the  valley  of  the 
Lomami. 

It  is  intended  soon  to  build  a  railroad  connecting 
these  rivers,  and  when  this  is  accomplished  a  large 
area  not  now  accessible  will  be  open  to  commerce. 
Necessarily  such  trading  stations  will,  for  a  while 
at  least,  need  governmental  protection.  Hence  each 
station  will  be  in  the  nature  of  a  military  establish- 
ment, and  will  form  also  the  nucleus  for  a  future  city. 
The  Caucasian,  observing,  of  course,  certain  neces- 
sary precautions,  will  find  the  climate  of  a  large  part 
of  this  section  quite  congenial.  It  is  not  unlike  that 
of  the  tablelands  of  Java  or  of  the  highlands  of 
Ceylon.  Moreover,  the  soil  no  less  than  the  forests 
and  the  mineral  resources  of  this  vicinity  will  offer 
splendid  opportunities  to  the  investor. 

Necessarily  the  future  of  this  part  of  the  Congo, 
as  well  as  that  of  all  regions  distant  from  the  naviga- 
ble rivers,  is  dependent  upon  the  construe-  j^ie 
tion  of  a  railway  system  which  will  bring  Coming 
them  into  touch  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  Country. 
That  such  railways  cannot  be  built  without  a  great 
expenditure  of  money  is  obvious,  but  the  success  of 
the  lines  already  estabUshed  and  the  enormous  profits 
sure  in  the  end  to  repay  the  investors  are  calculated 
to  attract  sooner  or  later  the  necessary  capital.  All 
who  have  visited  this  part  of  the  Congo  country  are 
agreed  that  its  natural  resources  are  incomparably 
greater  than  those  of  any  part  of  Europe.  When 
developed  they  will  excite  the  wonder  of  the  world. 
But  this  result,  so  devoutly  to  be  wished,  involving 
as  it  does  the  betterment  of  millions  of  Hves  lately 


52  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

enveloped  in  densest  ignorance,  is  not  to  be  attained 
without  some  sacrifices.  Capital,  time,  and  labour 
must  co-operate  to  bring  about  this  result. 

On  the  right  or  northern  bank  of  the  Congo  are  to 
be  found  several  large  affluents.  Of  these,  one  of  the 
jjjg  most  important  is  the  Aruwimi,  which  joins 

Congo's  the  Congo  just  below  Nyangwe.  The  Aru- 
Affluents.  ^y{j^{  riscs  in  the  Blue  Mountains,  not  far 
from  Lake  Albert  Nyanza.  Thence  flowing  westward 
about  seven  hundred  miles,  and  gathering  on  its  way 
the  waters  of  its  numerous  tributaries,  it  is,  when  it 
reaches  the  Congo,  a  copious  stream  over  a  mile  wide. 
Above  Yambuya  the  navigation  of  the  Aruwimi  is 
rendered  impossible  by  a  succession  of  cataracts, 
that  bane  of  the  African  navigator.  However,  the 
beauty  and  the  resources  of  the  surroimding  country 
somewhat  compensate  for  these  hindering  conditions. 
Here  is  the  famous  forest  of  Ituri,  the  home  of  a 
vast  population  and  the  haunt  of  many  species  of 
game.  In  and  around  the  Ituri  occurred  some  noted 
skirmishes  with  the  mutinous  Batetelas. 

About  150  miles  west  of  the  Aruwimi  the  Rubi 
reaches  the  Congo  at  Itembo.  Rising  in  the  Mabode 
about  500  miles  north  of  Stanley  Falls,  it  flows  west 
and  south-west  for  a  distance  of  600  miles. 

Three  hundred  miles  west  of  the  Rubi  is  the  Mon- 
galla.  It  rises  at  the  northern  boundary  of  the 
State  and,  flowing  south -south-west,  reaches  the 
Congo  at  Molieka.  The  Mongalla  is  a  fine,  open 
stream,  and  on  its  banks  the  Government  has  estab- 
lished a  line  of  important  stations.  By  these  the 
State  maintains  control  of  the  surrounding  territory 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  53 

and  renders  possible  commerce  with  a  large  popula- 
tion. Similar  stations  have  been  and  are  being 
erected  along  the  smaller  navigable  streams,  and 
these,  when  connected  with  the  centres  by  railroad 
and  by  telegraph,  as  eventually  they  will  be,  will 
make  the  whole  interior  equally  accessible. 

Probably  no  tributary  of  the  Congo  is  of  more 
importance  than  the  Ubanghi.  It  was  Van  Gele  who, 
in  1886,  first  explored  the  Ubanghi  country  and 
demonstrated  the  strategic  value  and  commercial 
possibilities  of  this  mighty  river.  The  Uelle,  which 
flows  in  a  north-westerly  direction,  rises  in  the  Blue 
Mountains.  It  was  discovered  by  Dr.  Junker,  the 
German  explorer,  and  may  be  considered  the  upper 
course  of  the  Ubanghi.  Above  the  Panga  Falls, 
the  Uelle  is  navigable  for  large  vessels  as  far  as 
Niangara. 

After  receiving  the  waters  of  the  Uelle  the  Ubanghi 
forms  for  a  long  distance  the  boundary  between  the 
Free  State  and  the  French  territory.  Beyond  Ban- 
zyville  the  river  makes  a  wide  curve  towards  the 
north  to  Waddas,  whence  it  flows  almost  directly 
south,  joining  the  Congo  a  little  above  Lake  Ma- 
tumba.  The  rich  valley  through  which  this  splendid 
stream,  over  a  thousand  miles  in  length,  takes  its 
winding  course,  comprises  an  area  of  160,000  square 
miles.  Emin  Pasha  described  it  as  possessing  won- 
derful productivity — "The  Granary  of  Equatoria"  he 
called  it.  Here  the  natives,  who  are  instinctively 
agricultural,  raise  tobacco,  coffee,  and  sugar-cane  in 
large  quantities.  The  highways  now  being  con- 
structed will  give  to  the  industry  of  this  region  an 


54  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

immediate  impetus,  and  the  natives,  who  are  skilful 
in  the  making  of  brick,  will  greatly  contribute  to  the 
development.  It  is  also  proposed  to  continue  the 
Uelle  Railway  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Nile.  Such  a 
continuous  route,  amply  justified  by  the  resources 
of  this  section  and  by  commercial  considerations, 
will  be  a  most  desirable  consummation. 

The  Lua,  an  eastern  branch  of  the  Ubanghi,  will 
prove  of  great  commercial  importance.  Captain 
Heymans,  who  first  navigated  the  Lua,  explored 
it  as  far  as  Bowara.  The  Dekere,  which  also  has 
been  partly  explored,  is  probably  the  upper  course 
of  the  Lua,  and  this  continuous  stream  will  prove  a 
convenient  route  to  the  Uelle. 

In  this  way  the  great  detour  of  the  Ubanghi,  in 
which  are  the  impassable  cataracts  of  Zongo  and 
Mokoangi,  can  be  successfully  avoided. 

The  importance  of  the  Mbomu,  a  northern  ramifi- 
cation of  the  Ubanghi,  is  increased  by  the  fact  that  it 
forms  for  a  considerable  distance  a  natural  bound- 
ary between  the  Congo  Free  State  and  the  French 
possessions.  Its  position,  therefore,  renders  it  of 
considerable  political  consequence.  The  Mbomu, 
although  not  yet  entirely  explored,  is  destined  there- 
fore to  play,  with  its  numerous  branches,  a  large 
part  in  the  history  of  the  Congo.  The  country 
around  is  not  only  of  great  fertility,  but  also  very 
beautiful.  Here  is  to  be  found  one  of  the  finest 
forests  in  the  territory. 

By  means  of  the  Congo  and  its  tributaries  an  ad- 
mirable system  of  communication  is  being  estab- 
lished, the  ramifications  of  which,  supplemented  by 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  55 

the  telegraph  and  the  railway,  will  within  a  few  years 
render  every  part  of  this  vast  territory  accessible. 
In  proportion  thereto  will  increase  the  authority  of 
the  State  and  its  civilising  influence.  The  growth 
of  commerce,  and  the  security  and  advancement 
of  the  native  population,  are,  in  fact,  coexpansive 
with  the  extension  of  the  facilities  of  intercommuni- 
cation. The  larger  rivers — the  Kassai,  the  Kwango, 
the  Lualaba  and  the  Ubanghi — are  all  patrolled  by 
government  steamers. 

Of  hardly  less  importance  than  the  rivers  of  the 
Congo  are  the  lakes.  Besides  the  larger  and  navi- 
gable lakes  are  hundreds  of  smaller  ones. 
There  are  thousands  of  shallow  pools  along  ^^^  Congo 
the  courses  of  the  rivers,  as  those  along 
the  upper  Luapula.  It  was  that  keen  observer, 
M.  Delcommune,  who  foretold  that  many  of  these 
lakes  will  eventually  disappear.  He  contended 
that  a  combination  of  causes,  chief  among  which 
being  the  dryness  of  the  equatorial  climate  and  the 
consequent  evaporation  of  the  water,  will  gradually 
bring  about  this  result.  By  a  succession  of  experi- 
ments, covering  a  period  of  more  than  two  years,  he 
discovered  a  diminution  of  the  water  of  the  Lualaba. 
This  process  of  evaporation,  incessantly  continued 
for  centuries,  will  completely  absorb  the  water  in 
the  marshes  and  pools,  and  decrease  the  volume  of 
the  great  rivers  themselves.  However,  this  need 
occasion  no  alarm.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  believed 
that  it  will  aid  materially  the  development  of 
the  country.  Not  only  will  it  dry  the  pestiferous 
marshes,  but  it  will  also  define  the  beds  of  the  rivers, 


56  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

whose  courses,  because  of  the  contraction  of  their 
channels,  will  thus  be  rendered  simpler  and  more 
definite. 

By  the  disappearance  of  the  pools  and  lagoons, 
now  to  be  found  in  the  vicinity  of  the  rivers,  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  acres  of  valuable  arable  lands 
will  be  reclaimed.  And  as  this  soil,  formed  of  allu- 
vial deposits,  is  exceedingly  fertile,  the  benefits  that 
will  accrue  therefrom  are  incalculable.  The  famous 
polders  of  Holland,  and  the  lowlands  of  Egypt  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Nile,  demonstrate  the  possibilities 
of  such  a  soil. 

But  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  wait  for  the  slow 
processes  of  nature.  Vast  areas  can  be  drained  by 
artificial  means,  and  this,  since  the  sun  is  for  ever 
assisting,  can  be  done  without  great  cost.  The  lands 
so  drained  will  possess,  besides  their  extraordinary 
fertility,  other  advantages,  not  the  least  of  which  is 
their  accessibility. 

The  most  important  lake  in  the  western  part  of 
the  State  is  Lake  Leopold  II.,  discovered  by  Stanley 
in  1882.  It  is  broad  but  shallow,  and  is  joined  to  the 
Congo  by  the  Mfini  and  the  Kassai.  On  its  banks 
are  several  flourishing  stations.  North-west  of  Lake 
Leopold  is  Lake  Matumba,  from  which  the  navigable 
river,  Irebu,  flows  upwards  into  the  Congo. 

On  the  north-eastern  boundary  is  Lake  Albert 
Edward,  the  western  part  of  which  belongs  to  the 
State.  This  lake,  the  haunt  of  numerous  hippo- 
potami, is  joined  to  Lake  Albert  Nyanza,  which  is 
about  150  miles  north,  by  the  Semlika,  the  boundary 
between  the  Belgian  and  British  possessions. 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  57 

Directly  south  of  Lake  Albert  Edward  is  Lake 
Kivu.  From  this  lake,  part  of  which  is  yet  un- 
explored, flows  the  river  Rusisi.  This  torrential 
stream  dashes  through  a  rocky  country,  descending 
2380  feet  in  68  miles.  It  empties  into  Lake  Tangan- 
yika. On  the  eastern  shore  of  the  lake  are  Lubuga 
and  Luahilimta,  trading  stations,  established  by 
the  State.  Lake  Kivu  is  dotted  with  hundreds  of 
islets,  and  is  situated  in  the  centre  of  a  lofty  pla- 
teau. Towering  from  this  plateau  rises  a  range  of 
enormous  snow-clad  volcanic  cones,  from  eight  to 
over  fourteen  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.  Of  these  the  highest  is  Kirunga-cha-gongo, 
which  is  said  to  be  the  largest  inland  volcano  in  the 
world.  It  was  first  ascended  by  its  discoverer.  Count 
von  Gotzen,  and  later  by  the  English  naturalist, 
Moore.  All  around  Kivu  are  inaccessible  crags,  cal- 
cined gorges,  and  arid  deserts,  showing  that  the 
whole  region  is  of  volcanic  origin.  Such  is  the  won- 
derful clarity  of  the  atmosphere  that  the  outline  of 
every  crag  and  spur  of  the  mountains  is  visible  sixty 
miles  away.  The  forests  of  Kivu  abound  in  ele- 
phants. Travellers  report  seeing  here  as  many  as  a 
thousand  in  one  day. 

Of  Lake  Kivu  Count  von  Gotzen,  its  discoverer, 
has  given  an  excellent  account.  I  quote  the  follow- 
ing from  his  work,  Durf  Afrika  von  Ost  nach  West: 

The  bed  of  Lake  Kivu,  according  to  my  measurement  with 
the  hypsometer,  is  at  an  altitude  of  4800  feet.  Its  extent 
should  be  considerable,  for  on  my  crossing  it  I  saw  the  im- 
mense sheet  of  blue  water  disappear  far  off  into  the  clouds. 
Its  general  direction  is  from  North  to  South.     .     .     .     The 


58  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

appearance  of  the  isles  of  Lake  Kivu  is  most  picturesque. 
Their  rocky  and  snow-white  banks  rise  in  peaks  and  are  fre- 
quented by  herons  and  cranes.  A  fresh  breeze  ever  rustles 
across  the  lake  and  cools  the  air  agreeably.  .  .  .  When 
one  turns  one's  gaze  to  the  north  a  sort  of  immense  barrier 
formed  by  the  Kirunga-cha-gongo  and  the  four  other 
Virunga  Mountains  is  to  be  seen.  .  .  .  The  neighbour- 
hood of  Kivu  is  extremely  fertile  in  provisions  of  every  kind. 

Directly  south  of  Kivu,  and  connected  with  it  by 
the  river  Rusisi,  is  Lake  Tanganyika,  partitioned 
equally  between  the  Congo  Free  State  and  German 
East  Africa.  It  is  about  four  hundred  miles  in 
length  and  nearly  fifty  in  breadth.  It  was  Stanley 
who  first  circumnavigated  Lake  Tanganyika,  though 
it  had  been  discovered  in  1858,  about  twenty  years 
before,  by  Burton  and  Speke.  It  was,  in  fact,  the 
latter  who  first  called  the  attention  of  the  world  to 
the  Congo  Region.  On  the  shores  of  this  lake  Lieu- 
tenant Cambier,  in  1879,  established,  at  Karema,  the 
first  station  of  the  International  Association  of  the 
Congo.  Cambier  was  so  impressed  with  the  possi- 
bilities of  this  region  that,  by  purchase  and  treaty, 
he  obtained  from  its  native  ruler  about  five  thou- 
sand acres  of  land,  and  this  tract  may  be  regarded 
as  the  nucleus  of  King  Leopold's  colony.  It  was 
this  station  on  Tanganyika  also  that  afterwards  be- 
came the  basis  of  operations  against  the  Arab  slave- 
trade. 

From  Albertville,  Baudouinville,  and  other  sta- 
tions on  its  western  shore  a  flotilla  of  small  vessels 
and  several  steam-yachts  now  navigate  this  lake,  and 
to  these  other  and  larger  craft  will  soon  be  added. 


viinjS'aU'liliiiiii^^s. 
State  Pilot  Barge,  Banana. 


J^ 


Bridge,  80  Metres  (Kwilu). 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  59 

A  telegraph  and  telephone  line,  connecting  Kas- 
songo  on  the  Lualaba  with  Baraka  on  Lake  Tangan- 
yika, was  opened  in  the  latter  part  of  1903.  This 
line  will  soon  be  extended  to  Lake  Kivu. 

The  region  around  Tanganyika  is  noted  for  its 
beautiful  scenery,  and  a  large  part  of  it  is  said  to  be 
unusually  healthful.  Like  Kivu,  this  lake  is  situated 
in  an  immense  plateau,  six  thousand  feet  above  the  sea. 
The  angular  inclination  and  general  configuration  of 
all  these  lakes  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Congo  is,  in 
fact,  very  similar;  each  lake,  however,  has  its  in- 
dividual scenery,  climate,  and  peculiar  flora.  Moore 
found  Tanganyika  floored  with  the  shells  of  millions 
of  molluscs,  the  zoological  remains  of  a  dead  sea. 
He  discovered  here  also  three  kinds  of  sponges.  On 
the  eastern  shores  abound  huge  swamps  and  im- 
mense tracts  of  mimosa.  The  dark  red  cliffs  on  the 
West  Coast  form  a  brilliant  contrast  to  the  blue 
African  sky  and  the  white  clouds.  Between  Tan- 
ganyika and  Nyangwe,  the  old  slave-capital  of 
Tippo  Tip,  the  country  is  tenanted  by  the  Manyema, 
famous  as  collectors  of  ivory.  Surveys  are  now 
being  made  for  a  railway  from  Beni  to  Tanganyika. 
This  it  is  proposed  to  continue  to  Stanleyville  on  the 
Middle  Congo. 

Lake  Moero,  one  hundred  miles  south-west  of  Tan- 
ganyika and  the  south-eastern  boundary  between 
British  territory  and  the  State,  was  discovered  by 
Livingstone.  It  was  first  explored,  however,  by  the 
Belgian  officers,  Bia  and  Francqui.  This  lake,  which 
is  one  hundred  miles  long  and  about  half  as  broad, 
is  now  patrolled  by  a  steam -yacht. 


6o  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Only  a  few  years  ago  the  immense  basin  of  the 
Congo  was  an  untamed  wilderness,  "a  slave-park" 
Stanley  called  it,  bare  to  raids  of  murder- 
B°°kw^  d  ^^^  marauders.  Bands  of  predatory  Arabs 
swooping  down  upon  the  defenceless  natives 
decimated  whole  tribes,  and  carried  away  men,  wo- 
men, and  children  by  the  thousand.  The  slave- 
trader  stalked  like  a  pestilence  through  the  land, 
leaving  in  his  wake  the  smoking  ruins  of  a  hun- 
dred villages  and  the  charred  skeletons  of  his  black 
victims. 

It  was  not  only  the  natives  who  suffered  from  the 
raids  of  merciless  ravagers;  but  the  Europeans,  ex- 
plorer, merchant,  and  missionary,  were  also  subject 
to  their  tyrannical  impositions.  And  when,  as  in 
the  case  of  Emin  Pasha,  they  opposed  the  designs 
of  these  despoilers,  they  were  ruthlessly  murdered. 
Flame  and  sword,  robbery  and  massacre, —  such, 
until  ten  years  ago,  were  the  chief  episodes  in  the 
epic  of  the  Congo. 

To-day  this  vast  region  is  not  only  geographically 
determined,  occupied,  and  effectually  protected, 
but  the  power  of  the  Arab  raider  has  been  for  ever 
annihilated.  Regions  which  for  ages  were  the  scene 
of  carnage  and  holocaust  have  now  been  pacified. 
Where  all  was  insecurity  and  turbulence  a  reign  of 
law  and  order  has  been  substituted. 

Nature  has  here  been  so  prodigal  of  her  gifts  that 
her  very  extravagance  renders  m  some  respects  the 
task  of  colonisation  less  easy.  Before  roads  could 
be  built  it  was  necessary  to  hew  down  huge  forests; 
before  stations  could  be  established  it  was  needful 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  6i 

to  explore  and  to  conquer  the  wilderness.  The  paths 
that  plunged  into  the  jungle  ended  in  trackless  soli- 
tudes. The  vastnesses  bristled  with  unknown  ter- 
rors. There  was  call  for  the  explorer  and  the  pioneer, 
but  it  seemed  as  if  ages  must  elapse  before  there  was 
need  of  the  carriers  of  commerce. 

To  conduct  broad  highways  from  the  coast  to  the 
centre,  through  a  territory  so  vast  in  extent,  so 
dangerous,  and  so  impenetrable,  would  seem  indeed 
a  task  for  centuries.  Such,  too,  it  is  safe  to  assume, 
would  still  be  the  situation  had  it  not  been  for  the 
magnificent  water-system  of  the  region  and  the 
great  colonising  genius  who  turned  its  natural  de- 
stiny to  the  civilising  course  of  an  onward  industry. 
Without  these  splendid  flowing  highways  of  com- 
merce, pulsing  from  the  heart  of  the  continent  to  the 
sea,  the  wonderful  progress  of  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century  would  not  have  been  possible.  Following 
the  lead  of  the  Congo  and  its  tributaries,  Belgian 
pioneers  have  moved  through  the  great  wilderness, 
planting  the  plough  and  the  cross,  until  to-day  Cent- 
ral Africa,  so  long  curtained  from  the  eyes  of  civil- 
ised man,  lies  bare  to  the  world. 

It  was  by  this  instrument  that  the  siege  of  the 
great  unknown  was  prosecuted.  It  was  thus  that  that 
citadel  of  despair,  the  stronghold  of  Darkest  Africa, 
was  subjugated.  And  as  we  look  at  the  magnificent 
results,  and  at  the  still  more  magnificent  future 
which  those  results  foreshadow,  we  cannot  but  con- 
clude that  this  natural  aid  to  the  efforts  of  a  heroic 
band  of  explorers  was  more  than  the  mere  mani- 
festation of  blind  chance. 


62  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  campaign  of  exploration  planned  by  King 
Leopold,  and  executed  by  his  courageous  subjects 
and  his  able  ally,  Stanley,  was  the  first  of 
Journalist,  those  remarkable  achievements  of  practical 
utility  that  have  no  parallel  in  the  history 
of  modem  colonisation.  In  the  Congo  and  its  afflu- 
ents these  State-builders  found  a  providential  and 
generous  auxiliary.  These  wide  rivers,  the  veins  of 
the  civilisation  of  the  Congo,  are  the  key  to  a  situa- 
tion of  which  triumphant  Belgian  sacrifice  and  valour 
in  Central  Africa  will  yet  perfect  the  sequel. 

To  the  existence  of  these  natural  allies,  then, 
is  largely  due  the  speedy  extirpation  of  the  slave 
trade,  the  suppression  of  cannibalism,  the  control  of 
the  coimtry,  the  gradual  conversion  of  its  popula- 
tions to  the  saving  influences  of  civilisation,  the 
effective  system  of  communication  between  port  and 
port,  and  the  beginnings  of  the  development  of 
those  vast  resources  which  already  excite  the  cu- 
pidity of  nations  less  successful.  Indeed,  without 
such  advantage  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  King  of 
the  Belgians  would  have  been  equal  to  the  onerous 
responsibilities  he  so  cheerfully  assumed. 

But  now  with  more  than  nine  thousand  miles  of 
waterways  open  to  navigation,  few  sections  of  this 
"Change  immense  domain  are  to-day  inaccessible, 
in  all  Great  areas  which  but  a  few  years  ago  were 

Around.'  virgin  forests  are  now  under  successful  cul- 
tivation. The  jungle,  once  the  lair  of  the  cannibal, 
is  safe  and  peaceful.  Where  the  raider  ravished  his 
shrieking  victims,  the  State  and  the  Mission  instruct 
in  the  attributes  of  a  useful  life.     Chaos  has  at  last 


The  Waterways  of  the  Congo  63 

yielded  to  order,  and  another  triumph  has  been 
added  to  civiHsation  in  the  short  term  of  twenty 
years.  It  is  a  great  story,  and  the  Prince  who 
wrote  it  on  the  face  of  Africa  need  not  deign  to  hear 
the  hiss  of  envy  straining  at  the  gorge.  Let  Leopold 
IL  find  consolation  in  that  rugged  philosophy  of 
Carlyle  which  mocked  at  the  timid  temper  of  his 
own  time:  "To  subdue  mutiny,  discord,  widespread 
despair  by  manfulness,  justice,  mercy  and  wisdom, 
to  let  light  on  chaos  and  make  it  instead  a  green 
flowery  world,  is  great  beyond  all  other  greatness, 
work  for  a  God." 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  STATE  AND  INTERNATIONAL  LAW 

IN  view  of  the  confused  controversy  that  has  pre- 
vailed between  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of 
the  Congo  Free  State,  concerning  its  legal  founda- 
tion and  its  existence  de  facto  before  the  Conference 
of  the  Powers  which  recognised  its  statehood  at 
Berlin  (November  15,  1884-February  26,  1885),  it 
seems  pertinent  at  this  point  to  examine  the  issue 
at  some  length. 

For  unknown  centuries  Central  Africa  had  been 
peopled  with  many  millions  of  savage,  semi- savage, 
Central  ^^^  barbarian  black  men,  hidden  from  all 
Africa  civilising  influence.  Their  social  condition 
eviewe  .  yg^j-jg^j  Many  were  cannibals,  some  were 
living  in  a  rude  state  of  primitive  tribal  order, 
others  were  at  incessant  war  with  hostile  tribes, 
all  were  living  in  the  gloom  of  an  interminable 
night  of  barbaric  existence.  Their  only  touch  with 
the  human  family  had  been  through  the  slave 
trade,  of  which  they  were  the  object  and  the 
victims.  The  white  man  knew  of  their  lot  in  this 
respect  many  years  before  he  listened  attentively  to 
an  appeal  for  deliverance  from  the  Arab  marauders 
who  enslaved  them.  The  natural  law  of  human 
solidarity  had  not  as  yet  inspired  civilised  nations 

64 


The  State  and  International  Law       65 

with  an  energetic  movement  to  ameUorate  the  con- 
dition of  the  savage  black  in  Mid- Africa.  Indeed, 
Stanley's  explorations  had  not  gone  to  completion 
save  for  the  enlightened  and  philanthropic  moral  and 
material  support  of  Leopold  II.  When  Great  Britain 
declined  to  provide  Stanley  with  the  means  to  fur- 
ther his  brave  work,  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  having 
several  years  before  openly  associated  himself  with 
sentiments  seeking  the  organisation  of  a  consistent 
civilising  movement  in  Central  Africa,  sent  for  this 
intrepid  explorer  and  fortified  his  hopes  and  plans 
from  his  private  purse.  It  was  with  the  highest 
motives,  from  an  elevated  j^oint  of  view,  that  his 
Majesty  considered  the  situation  of  these  cannibal 
tribes.  His  solicitude  for  the  Belgians,  their  eco- 
nomic needs,  their  legitimate  and  necessary  expan- 
sion, gave  point  to  his  consideration  of  a  distant 
land,  where  great  natural  wealth  lay  unrevealed  and 
unused,  for  the  good  of  the  native  and  his  benefac- 
tor. A  wild  life  abounded  in  those  parts  which  by 
civilisation  might  be  regenerated  and  brought  into 
the  sphere  of  human  usefulness.  Here  opportunity 
seemed  to  throw  wide  her  arms  for  the  Prince  with 
the  courage  to  dare  an  undertaking  which  the  great 
Powers  and  the  small  had  so  far  deftly  avoided.  "I 
will  pierce  barbaric  darkness;  I  will  secure  to  Cen- 
tral Africa  the  blessing  of  civilised  government. 
And  I  will,  if  necessary,  undertake  this  great  task 
alone."  So  spake  his  Majesty,  when,  as  Duke  of 
Brabant,  he  electrified  Europe  with  what  Europe, 
in  her  narrowed  conservatism,  regarded  as  the  Uto- 
pian utterances  of  an  impractical  and  effervescing 


66  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

youth.  Europe  smiled  and  shrugged  her  shoulders 
at  the  temerity  of  him  who  essayed  to  analyse  the 
heart  of  Africa  and  prescribe  its  panacea. 

If  this  great  task  had  fallen  upon  a  man  of  or- 
dinary natural  powers  and  acquired  means,  that  part 
of  Darkest  Africa  which  now  defies  the  organised 
conspiracy  of  the  despoiler  would  interest  nobody 
save  the  slave-trader  who  terrorised  the  land  and 
polluted  the  sea  with  the  black  man's  blood.  To  his 
Majesty's  great  initiative  in  1876,  and  to  his  pre- 
science of  mind,  his  generous  hand,  and  astonishing 
industry  in  the  cause  which  inspired  him  are  due 
those  two  decades  of  progress  which  some  regard  as 
a  triumph  of  Colonial  civilisation ;  while  others,  from 
motives  which  need  not  be  examined  with  a  lens, 
stigmatise  it  as  the  curse  of  Central  Africa. 

Point  of  view  and  interest  are  important  elements 
in  all  controversy.  Where  so  much  has  been  charged 
and  refuted,  a  judicial  attitude  is  sometimes  main- 
tained with  difficulty.  But  against  the  assertion 
that  the  Congo  Free  State  is  a  creation  of  the  Gen- 
eral Act  of  the  Berlin  Conference,  may  be  arrayed 
a  body  of  well-settled  law  which  only  an  unreason- 
ing enemy  or  a  paid  advocate  would  have  the  hardi- 
hood to  dispute. 

Long  before  the  Berlin  Conference  had  been  con- 
ceived, acts  of  government  had  been  effecting  or- 
Simpie  ganisation  and  order  in  the  territory  now 
Facts  known  as  the  "Independent  State  of  the 

Briefly  Told.  Congo. ' '  Legislation,  one  of  the  later  signs 
of  established  government,  had  occurred  in  the  terri- 
tory acquired  by  the  Co  mite  cT  Etudes  du  Haut-Congo, 


The  State  and  International  Law         67 

of  which  King  Leopold  was  honorary  president  and 
Colonel  Strauch  president. 

The  conception  of  the  State  was  that  of  the  King 
personally;  the  character  of  its  governmental  mani- 
festations was  surcharged  with  his  personality;  its 
being  was  crystallised  by  his  own  touch  and  model- 
ling. It  is  error  to  confound  the  recognition  of  the 
State  by  the  Berlin  Conference  as  the  act  which 
created  the  State.  Recognition  presupposes  exist- 
ence, and  in  the  case  of  the  Congo  Free  State  there 
had  been,  for  a  considerable  time  before  the  adoption 
of  the  General  Act  of  the  Berlin  Conference,  a  gov- 
ernment de  facto  in  the  territories  under  the  dominion 
of  the  Comite  d'Ettides  du  Hattt-Congo.  Indeed,  be- 
fore the  Berlin  Conference  had  adopted  the  General 
Act,  the  State  was  qualified  to  announce,  and  did 
notify  the  Conference,  that  it  had  been  recognised 
by  all  the  Powers  except  one,  which,  however,  soon 
thereafter  followed  the  example  of  the  other  signa- 
tories. It  was  as  a  State,  standing  on  an  equality 
with  the  other  Powers,  that  the  Congo  Free  State 
attended  the  Berlin  Conference  and,  under  Article 
37,  adhered  to  an  Act  which  did  not  deal  with  the 
sovereignty  of  States  at  all,  but  confined  itself  to 
a  consideration  of  an  economic  regime  applicable 
throughout  the  Congo  Basin,  including  the  territories 
therein  of  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Portugal, 
and  the  Congo  Free  State.  Events  anterior  to  its 
introduction  to  the  Conference  as  a  friendly  State 
by  Prince  Bismarck  do  not  depend  for  their  quality 
upon  the  form  of  that  introduction.  They  are 
not  destroyed  by  the  peculiarity  of  phrase  or  the 


68  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

spontaneous  honour  which  accompanied  its  entrance 
into  the  society  of  nations.  That  which  does  not  ex- 
ist cannot  be  the  object  of  recognition.  Even  with- 
out the  facts  of  the  recognition  by  the  United  States 
of  the  State's  flag  (April  22,  1884)  as  that  of  a  friendly 
Government  seven  months  before  the  Berlin  Confer- 
ence convened,  and  its  recognition  by  Germany 
seven  days  before  the  opening  of  the  Conference 
(November  8,  1884),  the  State  contends  that  it  was 
a  State  in  esse,  a  Government  de  facto,  fully  organ- 
ised and  qualified  to  maintain  itself  as  such  within 
the  territory  it  had  acquired  by  cession  from  the 
native  tribal  chiefs  and  by  prior  occupation. 

An  examination  of  competent  authorities  on  this 
important  phase  of  Congolese  civilisation  convinces 
us  that  the  idle  contention  which  questions  the 
State's  independence  of  the  Powers  signatory  of  the 
General  Act  of  Berlin  has  been  brought  forth  merely 
for  its  cumulative  effect,  not  for  its  inherent  power 
to  sustain  itself. 

The  subject  may  be  approached  by  two  questions : 
What  is  a  State?     What  is  a  Government? 

' '  A  State  .  .  .  implies  the  union  of  a  number 
of  individuals  in  a  fixed  territory,  and  under  one 
central  authority.  Austria-Hungary  is  a  State,  but, 
as  Prince  Gortchakoff  once  sarcastically  remarked, 
'It  is  a  Government,  and  not  a  nation.'  " 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  defines  the 
term  State  as  combining  the  idea  of  people,  territory, 
and  government.  Defining  the  difference  between 
a  government  in  law  and  a  government  in  fact,  Mon- 
tague Bernard  says,  in  Neutrality  of  Great  Britain 


The  State  and  International  Law         69 

during  American  Civil  War:  ''  A  de  jure  government 
is  one  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  person  using  the 
phrase,  ought  to  possess  the  powers  of  sovereignty, 
though  at  the  time  it  may  be  deprived  of  them.  A 
de  facto  government  is  one  which  is  really  in  posses- 
sion of  them,  although  the  possession  ma}^  be  wrong- 
ful or  precarious." 

In  Tharington  v.  Smith,  8  Wallace,  8-1 1,  the 
Court  said: 

There  are  several  degrees  of  what  is  called  de  facto  govern- 
ment. Such  a  government  in  its  highest  degree  assumes  a 
character  very  closely  resembling  that  of  a  lawful  government. 
.  .  .  There  is  another  species  of  de  facto  government,  and 
it  is  one  which  may  be  perhaps  aptly  called  a  government 
of  paramount  force.  Its  distinguishing  characteristics  are: 
That  its  existence  is  maintained  by  active  military  power, 
within  the  territories     .     .     .     etc." 

In  Wheaton's  Elements  of  International  Law,  the 
latest  edition  of  the  leading  authority  on  the  subject, 
the  author  maintains  that: 

The  recognition  of  any  State  by  other  States,  and  its  ad- 
mission into  the  general  society  of  nations,  may  depend,  or 
may  be  made  to  depend,  at  the  will  of  those  other  States,  upon 
its  internal  constitution  or  form  of  government,  or  the  choice 
it  may  make  of  its  rulers.  But  whatever  be  its  internal  con- 
stitution, or  form  of  government,  or  whoever  may  be  its  rulers, 
or  even  if  it  be  distracted  with  anarchy,  through  a  violent  con- 
test for  the  government  between  different  parties  among  the 
people,  the  State  still  subsists  in  contemplation  of  law,  until 
its  sovereignty  is  extinguished  by  the  final  dissolution  of  the 
social  tie,  or  by  some  other  cause  which  puts  an  end  to  the 
being  of  the  State. 

.     .     .     The  internal  sovereignty  of  a  State  does  not,  in 


70  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

any  degree,  depend  upon  its  recognition  by  other  States.  A 
new  State,  springing  into  existence,  does  not  require  the 
recognition  of  other  States  to  confirm  its  internal  sovereignty. 
The  existence  of  the  State  de  facto  is  sufficient,  in  this  respect, 
to  estabhsh  its  sovereignty  de  jure.  It  is  a  State  because  it 
exists. 

Thus  the  internal  sovereignty  of  the  United  States  of 
America  was  complete  from  the  time  they  declared  them- 
selves "free,  sovereign  and  independent  States,"  on  the  4th  of 
July,  1776.  .  .  .  The  treaty  of  peace  of  1782  contained  a 
recognition  of  their  independence,  not  a  grant  of  it. 

The  external  sovereignty  of  any  State,  on  the  other  hand, 
may  require  recognition  by  other  States  in  order  to  render  it 
perfect  and  complete.  So  long,  indeed,  as  the  new  State  con- 
fines its  action  to  its  own  citizens,  and  to  the  limits  of  its  own 
territory,  it  may  well  dispense  with  such  recognition. 

The  principles  thus  indicated  would  appear  to  dis- 
tinguish with  marked  certitude  the  vast  difference 
between  the  State's  existence  and  its  recognition. 
The  latter  was  a  political  consequence  of  the  former. 
At  the  Berlin  Conference  no  question  was  raised  con- 
cerning a  fact  so  patent,  nor  did  the  signatories  dis- 
tinguish between  the  five  Powers  in  possession  of  the 
Congo  Basin  in  framing  the  clauses  of  the  Berlin  Act 
imposing  the  same  obligations  on  all  these  Govern- 
ments. Those  obligations  related  only  to  their 
economic  regime  in  Central  Africa.  The  articles  of 
the  Act  concerning  the  Congo  Basin,  which  applied 
to  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo,  were  also 
binding  upon  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  and 
Portugal.  This  sign  of  equality  is  inconsistent  with 
the  notion  that  the  Congo  Free  State  is  the  vassal 
territory  of  the  Powers  signatory  of  the  General  Act 
of  Berlin. 


The  State  and  International  Law  71 

It  has  been  contended  by  technicians  of  the  law 
of  nations  who  are  in  the  service  of  those  who  seek 
to  disrupt  the  Congo  Free  State,  that  a  State  cannot 
accrue  out  of  a  private  association,  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  the  International  African  Association  or  the 
Comite  d' Etudes  du  Haut-Congo.  But  just  as  events 
are  constantly  spoiling  theories,  so  had  the  flag  of 
the  Belgians  confounded  that  contention  by  demon- 
strating in  a  practical  manner  that  a  State  did  exist, 
and  that  all  the  elements  of  a  State  government  were 
present  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Stanley  Pool  long 
before  the  Berlin  Conference. 

The  identity  of  a  State  consists  in  its  having  the  same  origin 
or  commencement  of  existence;  and  its  difference  from  all 
other  States  consists  in  its  having  a  different  origin  or  com- 
mencement of  existence.  .  .  .  The  habitual  obedience  of 
the  members  of  any  political  society  to  a  superior  authority 
must  have  once  existed  in  order  to  constitute  a  sovereign 
State.' 

American  writers  on  the  subject  are  of  opinion 
that  the  North  American  Indian  in  his  aboriginal 
state  was  not  a  political  unit  of  the  United  States  at 
the  time  when  the  Union  declared  its  independence. 
In  Johnson  v.  Mcintosh,  8  Wheaton,  p.  543,  Chief- 
Justice  Marshall  described  their  status  in  the  follow- 
ing language: 

The  Indian  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  are  to  be  con- 
sidered merely  as  occupants,  to  be  protected,  indeed,  while 
in  peace,  in  the  possession  of  their  lands,  but  to  be  deemed  in- 
capable of  transferring  the  absolute  title  to  others  independent 
of  territorial  sovereignty. 

*  Wheaton 's  International  Law. 


72  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

To  this  may  be  added  the  apposite  declaration  of 
Mr.  Fish,  Secretary  of  State,  to  Mr.  Hackett,  June 
12,  1873: 

Aboriginal  inhabitants  in  a  savage  state  have  not  such  a 
title  to  the  land  where  they  dwell  or  roam  as  entitle  them  to 
confer  it  upon  persons  from  another  country. 

The  Congo  State  law  to  which  the  foregoing  decla- 
ration applies  will  be  discussed  in  the  chapter  on  the 
State  Lands  and  Concessions.  The  citation 
FaU*^^"^^  is  offered  here  merely  for  its  general  bear- 
ing upon  the  doctrine  put  forth  by  certain 
writers  who  contend  that  barbarous  races  living  in 
primitive  conditions  upon  lands  over  which  civilised 
government  has  not  been  established,  attain  to  the 
organic  level  of  political  units  or  citizenship  upon 
the  recognition  of  the  government  which  dominates 
them  with  either  its  civil  or  its  military  power. 
That  doctrine,  it  seems  to  us,  is  untenable.  There 
is,  on  the  other  hand,  no  doubt  that  savage  races 
can,  by  the  symbols  and  the  operating  functions  of 
government,  humanely  enforced  according  to  the 
conditions  with  which  it  must  cope,  be  brought  to 
the  knowledge  of,  and  obedience  to,  an  orderly  civil 
commimity.  The  instruments  of  civilisation  must 
vary  with  the  various  character  of  the  life  upon 
which  they  are  to  operate  effectively.  Yet  there 
are  strabismic  monitors  of  African  civilisation  who, 
representing  no  high  moral  standard  in  themselves, 
have  laid  down  a  rule  of  conduct  for  the  Congo 
Free  State  which  disregards  that  principle.  It  has 
been  this  narrow  view  of  a  liberal  civilising  scheme 


The  State  and  International  Law  73 

that  has  caused  so  much  mischievous  mewUng  in 
Great  Britain  concerning  alleged  misrule  in  Central 
Africa. 

The  foundation  of  the  Congo  Free  State  really 
began  with  the  organised  movement  and  structures 
of  the  Comite  d' Etudes  du  Haut-Congo  on  November 
25,  1878.  The  expedition  of  Stanley  on  August  14, 
1879,  was  an  earnest  of  the  Committee's  intention  to 
establish  the  institutions  of  a  permanent  local  gov- 
ernment with  all  practicable  speed. 

The  Belgian  post  of  Vivi  was  the  first  monument 
fixed  in  the  wake  of  Stanley.  On  February  21,  1880, 
Isanghila  was  established,  and  on  May  i,  1881,  Man- 
yanga  was  occupied.  In  the  following  December  the 
expedition  arrived  at  Stanley  Pool,  and  reconstructed 
the  steamboat  En  Avant,  which,  having  been  disman- 
tled, had  been  carried  in  small  sections  through  the 
forest  to  this  point  above  the  cataracts.  In  a  short 
time  this  pioneer  craft  bore  Stanley  up  the  Congo 
River  to  accomplish  the  dream  of  Leopold  II. 

Many  stations  were  established,  steamers  began 
running  between  them,  treaties  were  concluded  with 
the  chiefs  of  independent  native  tribes  to  protect 
the  territory  so  occupied  against  the  claims  of  sub- 
sequent explorers;  administrative  and  police  serv- 
ices were  required,  and  all  the  effective  essentials  of 
a  central  authority  and  an  actual  government  were 
then  and  there  established. 

At  this  juncture  the  Committee  changed  its  name 
to  the  International  Congo  Association  and  re- 
doubled its  activities.  The  Niadi  Kwilu  Basin 
was  explored;   that  important  factor  in  late  Congo 


74  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

prosperity,  the  Upper  Kassai,  was  brought  under  the 
influence  of  Belgian  regeneration,  and  the  Lunda 
country  and  districts  beyond  were  taken  within  the 
Government's  sphere. 

In  five  years  discoveries  of  great  value  had  been 
made  in  Darkest  Africa,  hundreds  of  tribes  had  been 
peacefully  visited,  over  five  hundred  treaties  of 
suzerainty  had  been  made  with  the  ruling  chiefs, 
forty  stations  had  been  erected  and  their  comple- 
ment of  officers  put  to  the  work  of  administering 
a  definite  system  of  local  government,  and  five 
steamers  on  the  Upper  Congo  were  regularly  com- 
municating the  affairs  of  a  Government  which  now 
effectively  controlled  all  the  territory  between  the 
East  Coast  and  Stanley  Falls,  between  Bangala  and 
Luluabourg." 

This,  then,  was  the  position  of  the  Government 
in  the  Congo  Basin  in  1883,  long  before  the  Berlin 
Conference.  The  status  that  Government  acquired 
as  a  consequence  of  its  administrative  acts  in,  and 
dominion  over,  the  territory  it  occupied,  has  been 
briefly  indicated  from  the  point  of  view  of  Ameri- 
can authorities  on  the  subject  of  international  law. 
Before  examining  the  leading  European  authorities, 
whose  approaches  to  the  subject  are  peculiar  to 
European  experience  and  learning,  it  is  interesting 
to  observe  how  consistently  the  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  followed  the  American 
view  of  the  law  on  the  subject. 

Baron  A.  Descamps'  New  Africa,  an  excellent 
essay  on  government  civilisation  in  new  countries, 

*  L'Etat  Independant  du  Congo,  M.  Wauters,  p.  27. 


The  State  and  International  Law  75 

embodies  a  concise  statement  of  what  occurred  in  the 
fortiines  of  the  infant  State  early  in  1884,  when  its 
progressive  work  had  extended  a  civilising 
influence  to  those  regions  of  the  Congo  Basin       Belgian, 
where  the  Arab  slave  trade  had  not  retained 
its  devastating  sway.     The  writer  says: 

The  practical  sympathy  speedily  accorded  to  the  Interna- 
tional Congo  Association  by  the  greatest  Power  of  the  New 
World,  the  United  States  of  America,  full  of  life  and  vigour 
and  ever  inclined  to  progress,  proved  that  King  Leopold's 
enterprise  had  secured  public  support  and  official  suffrage 
far  beyond  the  limits  of  Europe.  On  April  lo,  1884, 
the  American  Senate,  on  Mr.  Morgan's  remarkable  report,^ 
passed  a  resolution  asking  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  recognise  the  Association  "as  the  governing  power  of  the 
Congo."  A  few  days  later,  on  April  22,  1884,  that  recognition 
was  an  accomplished  fact.  In  officially  recalling,  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  Berlin  Conference,  the  nature  and  cause  of  this 
great  Act,  Mr.  Kasson,  Chief  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United 
States,  pointed  out  that,  following  upon  Stanley's  explora- 
tions, the  newly  discovered  regions  "would  be  exposed  to  the 
dangerous  rivalries  of  conflicting  nationalities.  It  was  the 
earnest  desire  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  that 
these  discoveries  should  be  utilised  for  the  civilisation  of  the 
native  races,  and  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade;  and 
that  early  action  should  be  taken  to  avoid  international  con- 
flicts likely  to  arise  from  national  rivalry  in  the  acquisition 
of  special  privileges  in  the  vast  region  so  suddenly  exposed 
to  commercial  enterprises."  Referring  to  the  work  so  ef- 
fectively performed  by  the  International  Congo  Association 
"under  high  and  philanthropic  European  patronage,"  he  said 

'  See  Compilation  of  Reports  of  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations. 
United  States  Senate.  Recognition  of  Congo  Free  State.  March  26, 
1884,  Washington,  Government  Printing  Office,  1902.  Vol.  vi.,  p.  221. 
The  appendices  include,  among  other  documents,  the  notes  of  Sir 
Travcrs  Twiss  and  Mr.  Arntz. 


7^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

that  those  gallant  pioneers  of  civilisation  had  "obtained  con- 
cessions and  jurisdiction  throughout  the  basin  of  the  Congo 
from  the  native  sovereignties  which  were  the  sole  authorities 
existing  there  and  exercising  dominion  over  the  soil  or  the 
people.  They  immediately  proceeded,"  added  he,  "to  es- 
tablish a  Government  de  facto.''  Declaring  next  that  the 
legality  of  the  acts  of  that  Government  should  be  recognised, 
under  penalty  of  recognising  "neither  law,  order,  nor  justice 
in  all  that  region,"  he  concluded  as  follows:  "The  President 
of  the  United  States,  on  being  duly  informed  of  this  organisa- 
tion, and  of  their  peacefully  acquired  rights,  of  their  means  of 
protecting  persons  and  property,  and  of  their  just  purposes 
towards  all  foreign  nations,  recognised  the  actual  government 
established,  and  the  flag  adopted  by  this  Association.  Their 
rights  were  grounded  on  the  consent  of  the  native  inhabitants, 
in  a  country  actually  occupied  by  them,  and  whose  routes  of 
commerce  and  travel  were  under  their  actual  control  and  ad- 
ministration. He  believed  that  in  thus  recognising  the  only 
dominant  flag  found  in  that  country  he  acted  in  the  common 
interest  of  civilised  nations." 

"In  so  far,"  said  the  American  Plenipotentiary,  "as  this 
neutral  and  peaceful  zone  shall  be  expanded,  so  far  he  foresees 
the  strengthening  of  the  guarantees  of  peace,  of  African  civ- 
ilisation, and  of  profitable  commerce  with  the  whole  family 
of  nations."  ^ 

Such  was  the  position  taken  up  by  the  United  States  of 
America  in  regard  to  the  recognition  of  the  newly  installed 
government  in  Equatorial  Africa.  Germany  was  the  first 
European  Power  to  consider  this  subject  of  recognition,  and 
to  accord  to  the  new  enterprise  marks  of  its  sympathy  and 
the  support  of  its  authority.  In  acknowledging,  by  the  Con- 
vention of  November  8,  1884,  concluded  before  the  Berlin  Con- 
ference opened,  the  flag  of  the  International  Congo  Association 
"as  that  of  a  friendly  State,"  the  German  Government  clearly 
indicated   that,  so  far  as  it  was  concerned,    the   new    State 

^  Protocoles  et  Acte  General  de  la  Conference  de  Berlin  (1884-85), 
p.  23  ss. 


The  State  and  International  Law         ^^ 

ought  to  take  its  place  from  the  first  among  the  Powers  called 
to  the  Conference. 

M.  Ernest  Nys,  Professor  of  International  Law  of 
the  University  of  Brussels,  Associate  Justice  of 
the  Court  of  Appeal  {Conseiller  a  la  Cour  Another 
d'Appel  de  Bruxelles) ;  member  of  the  Insti-  Learned 
tute  of  International  Law,  a  distinguished  ^  ^^^° 
Belgian,  and  writer  on  several  branches  of  the  law, 
sets  forth  with  greater  detail  the  precise  form  of  the 
recognition  of  the  Congo  Free  State  by  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States.     M.  Nys  relates: 

In  his  annual  message  to  Congress  the  President  of  the 
United  States  raised  the  question  of  the  relations  which  were 
henceforth  to  be  established  between  the  Republic  and  "the 
inhabitants  of  the  Congo  Valley  in  Africa."  On  26th  May, 
1884,  Mr.  Morgan  (Alabama)  reported  to  the  Senate  in  the 
name  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations. 

On  1 8th  January,  1884,  a  communication  from  Mr.  Freling- 
huysen,  Secretary  of  the  State  Department,  explained  to  Mr. 
Morgan  how  along  the  Congo  the  African  International  As- 
sociation had  created  important  establishments.  On  13th 
March  of  the  same  year  a  further  communication  from  Mr. 
Frelinghuysen  set  forth  the  opportuneness  and  the  usefulness 
of  recognising  the  flag  of  the  Association,  and  added  that  no 
principle  of  international  law  was  opposed  to  the  creation  of  a 
State  by  a  philanthropical  society. 

In  his  report  of  26th  March  Mr.  Morgan  recalled  the  fact 
that  Stanley  had  concluded  at  Vivi  on  13th  June,  1880,  the 
first  convention  with  a  native  chief,  and  that  since  that  date 
nearly  a  hundred  other  treaties  between  tribal  chiefs  and  the 
agents  of  the  Association  had  been  concluded,  in  which  im- 
portant commercial  arrangements  and  stipulations  relative 
to  law,  the  maintenance  of  order,  and  the  delegation  of  power 
figured  among  the  provisions.  Consequently  two  hypotheses 
presented  themselves.     "  If  the  local  rulers,"  said  Mr.  Morgan, 


78  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

"were  qualified  to  make  the  cession  they  did,  the  sovereign 
power  that  they  conferred  on  the  African  International  Asso- 
ciation might  obtain  recognition  on  the  part  of  other  nations 
precisely  because  that  Association  thus  proves  its  exist- 
ence as  a  Government  by  law.  If,"  he  added,  "there  exists 
any  doubt  concerning  the  sovereignty  or  the  territory  or  the 
subjects,  the  understanding  among  the  native  tribes  who 
conclude  treaties  with  the  Association  offers  a  sufficient  guar- 
antee to  other  peoples  for  recognising  the  Association  as  a 
Government  in  fact." 

The  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  made  a  motion  in  fa- 
vour of  the  recognition  of  the  Association.  It  is  permissible 
to  affirm  that  at  this  moment  a  juridical  person  already  ex- 
isted, which  could  claim  the  principal  rights  of  a  State,  and 
which  found  itself  prepared  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  one.  The 
first  direction  of  the  efforts  of  the  Committee  for  studying  the 
Upper  Congo  had  been  indicated  in  July,  1879,  in  the  in- 
structions given  to  Stanley.  "It  would  be  wise,"  wrote 
Colonel  Strauch,  "to  extend  the  influence  of  the  stations  over 
the  chiefs  and  tribes  inhabiting  the  neighbourhood.  There 
might  be  made  out  of  them  a  republican  confederation  of  free 
Negroes,  an  independent  confederation  under  this  reserva- 
tion, that  the  King,  to  whom  its  conception  and  creation 
would  be  due,  should  nominate  its  President  who  was  to  re- 
side in  Europe.  ...  A  confederacy  thus  formed  might 
of  its  own  authority  grant  concessions  to  companies  for  the 
construction  of  works  of  public  utility,  or  issue  loans,  as 
Liberia  and  Sarawak  do,  and  also  itself  execute  public  works. 
Our  enterprise  does  not  tend  to  the  creation  of  a  Belgian 
Colony  but  to  the  establishment  of  a  powerful  Negro  State."  ' 
But  the  political  idea  was  not  slow  in  taking  a  precise  form. 
If  in  Mr.  Morgan's  report  there  is  still  question  of  the  Free 
States  of  the  Congo  the  conclusion  did  not  the  less  relate,  as  we 
have  just  seen,  to  the  African  International  Association. 

It  was  it  which  was  [sic],  according  to  the  Committee  on 

'  F.  Cattier,  Droit  et  Administration  de  VEtat  Independant  du  Congo, 
1898,  p.  17. 


The  State  and  International  Law         79 

Foreign  Relations  of  the  Senate,  in  law  or  in  fact  a  "Govern- 
ment" qualified  to  claim  international  recognition. 

Besides,  the  solution  was  very  soon  effected.  The  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  recorded  the  existence  of  The 
International  Association  of  the  Congo,  managing  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Free  States  established  in  that  region,  and  gave 
orders  to  all  United  States  officials  on  sea  and  on  land  to 
recognise  the  flag  of  the  International  Association  as  the 
equal  of  that  of  a  friendly  Government. 

The  following  is  the  text  of  the  declarations  which 
were  exchanged  on  2  2d.  April,  1884: 

The  International  Association  of  the  Congo  hereby  de- 
clares that  by  Treaties  with  the  legitimate  Sovereigns  in  the 
basins  of  the  Congo  and  of  the  Niadi  Kwilu  and  in  adjacent 
territories  upon  the  Atlantic  there  has  been  ceded  to  it  terri- 
tory for  the  use  and  benefit  of  Free  States  established  and 
being  established  under  the  care  and  supervision  of  the  said 
Association  in  the  said  basins  and  adjacent  territories  to 
which  cession  the  said  Free  States  of  right  succeed. 

That  the  said  International  Association  had  adopted  for 
itself  and  for  the  said  Free  States,  as  their  standard,  the  flag 
of  the  International  African  Association,  being  a  blue  flag 
with  a  golden  star  in  the  centre. 

That  the  said  Association  and  the  said  States  have  resolved 
to  levy  no  custom-house  duties  upon  goods  or  articles  of  mer- 
chandise imported  into  their  territories  or  brought  by  the 
route  which  has  been  constructed  around  the  Congo  cataracts ; 
this  the}^  have  done  with  a  view  of  enabling  commerce  to 
penetrate  into  Equatorial  Africa. 

That  they  guarantee  to  foreigners  settling  in  their  terri- 
tories the  right  to  purchase,  sell,  or  lease  lands  and  buildings 
situated  therein;  to  establish  commercial  houses,  and  to 
carry  on  trade  upon  the  sole  condition  that  they  shall  obey 
the  laws.  They  pledge  themselves,  moreover,  never  to  grant 
to  the  citizens  of  one  nation  any  advantages  without  imme- 


8o  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

diately  extending  the  same  to  tlie  citizens  of  all  other  nations, 
and  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  prevent  the  slave  trade. 

In  testimony  whereof,  Henry  S.  Sanford,  duly  empowered 
therefor  by  the  said  Association,  acting  for  itself  and  for  the 
said  Free  States,  has  hereunto  set  his  hand  and  affixed  his  seal 
this  22nd  day  of  April,  1884,  in  the  City  of  Washington. 
(L.  S.)  (Signed)     H.  S.  Sanford. 

Frederick  T.  Frelinghuysen,  Secretary  of  State,  duly  em- 
powered therefor  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  pursuant  to  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Sen- 
ate, heretofore  given,  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  the  fore- 
going notification  from  the  International  Association  of  the 
Congo,  and  declares  that,  in  harmony  with  the  traditional 
policy  of  the  United  States,  which  enjoins  a  proper  regard  for 
the  commercial  interests  of  their  citizens,  while  at  the  same 
time  avoiding  interference  with  controversies  between  other 
Powers  as  well  as  alliances  with  foreign  nations,  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  announces  its  sympathy  with,  and 
approval  of,  the  humane  and  benevolent  purposes  of  the  In- 
ternational Association  of  the  Congo,  administering,  as  it 
does,  the  interests  of  the  Free  States  there  established,  and 
will  order  the  officers  of  the  United  States,  both  on  land  and 
sea,  to  recognise  the  flag  of  the  International  African  Associa- 
tion as  the  flag  of  a  friendly  Government. 

In  testimony  whereof,  he  has  hereunto  set  his  hand  and 
affixed  his  seal  this  22nd  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1884,  in  the  City 
of  Washington. 

(L.  S.)         (Signed)     Frederick  T.  Frelinghuysen. 

We  observe  in  the  spontaneous   recognition  ac- 
corded  the   youthful   State — whatever  its   form  of 
government  may  have  been — prompt  ad- 
states         mission  of  its  quaHfication  as  a  member  of 
Leads  the    d^q  society  of  nations.     This   was  before 

Wav 

the  signatory  Powers  to  the  General  Act  of 
Berlin  had  opportunity  of  indicating  that  sympathy 


The  State  and  International  Law         8i 

which  they  expressed  in  substantial  terms  when  they 
followed  the  example  of  the  United  States  and 
Germany,  and  invited  the  Congo  Government  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  Berlin  Conference  as  a  friendly  State 
invested  with  all  the  attributes  of  statehood  which 
their  recognition  implied. 

It  is  contended  by  the  advocates  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  that  the  form  of  its  government  at  any 
time  before  or  after  recognition  can  not  in  the 
slightest  degree  affect  the  question  of  the  State's 
actual  existence.  It  matters  not,  say  the  European 
authorities — Barboux,  Picard,  N3^s,  Descamps,  Van 
Berchem,  Azcarate,  de  Martens,  and  Pierantoni, 
whether  the  earlier  Government  was  composed  of 
"federated  Negro  tribes";  a  State  ruled  by  mon- 
archy; territorial  and  tribal  allegiance  to  an  organ- 
ised central  authority;  by  an  autocrat  employing 
civil  and  military  powers,  or  any  other  scheme  of 
equitable  and  civilised  domination.  The  right  of 
the  Government  to  exist  cannot  be  destroyed  by 
latter-day  technicalities  of  law  adroitly  applied.  The 
point  to  be  noted,  says  Baron  Descamps,  is  that  "the 
claim  to  the  occupation  of  vacant  territories  and 
to  the  acquirement  by  cession  of  sovereign  rights 
was  not  inferior  to  the  titles  relied  upon  by  European 
Powers  in  the  course  of  their  colonial  expansion." 
All  this  was  an  element  patent  in  the  State's  founda- 
tion, obviously  understood  and  admitted  by  the 
Powers  which,  while  they  assumed  that  the  Congo 
Basin  contained  nothing  of  material  or  political 
value  to  excite  their  cupidity,  they  recognised  and 
treated    on    a    basis   of    equality — so  far,  at  least, 


82  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

as  the  considerations  of  the  Berhn  Conference  are 
concerned. 

In  the  present  chapter  have  been  briefly  consid- 
ered the  legal  and  ethical  aspects  of  the  birth  and 
baptism  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  its  romantic  evolu- 
tion from  the  enlightened  forces  put  into  play  by  the 
indomitable  personal  powers  of  a  Prince  of  the  House 
of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.  In  a  succeeding  chapter  will 
be  observed  how  the  obligations  imposed  by  the 
General  Act  of  Berlin  were  discharged  by  the  several 
Powers  which  assumed  them.' 

'  For  a  full  report  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  March  26,  1884,  together  with  the  Treaties 
of  Vivi,  Leopoldville,  Manyanga,  and  Stephanieville,  see  Appendix. 


« 


pq 


CHAPTER  VII 
HORRORS  OF  THE  ARAB  SLAVE  TRADE 

SLAVERY:  the  absolute,  irresponsible  ownership 
of  one  class  of  human  beings  by  another  class ; 
a  contract  in  which  the  only  factors  are  might 
on  the  one  side   and  helplessness  on  the 
other;  servitude  exacted  by  force.  ^^T^Y 

'  -^  Defined. 

Slavery  has  existed  in  all  countries  from 
the  earliest  recorded  periods.     The  most  enlightened 
philosophers  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  were  un- 
able to  conceive  a  community  of  which  a  section  was 
not  enslaved  by  the  rest. 

As  a  system,  slavery,  by  its  long-continued,  uni- 
versal practice,  and  the  simple  solution  it  affords  of 
what  in  our  modern  world  is  referred  to  as  the 
labour  difficulty,  appeals  to  two  powerful  human 
instincts:  conservatism  and  cupidity.  The  ethical 
unfairness  of  one  man's  being  made  wholly  subserv- 
ient to  the  will  of  another;  forced  to  labour  for 
him  without  reward;  his  chattel  to  retain,  sell,  or 
slay,  as  though  he  were  a  horse  or  a  dog,  was  per- 
ceived from  the  earliest  times.  But  those  most  in- 
terested in  the  overthrow  of  the  system,  the  slaves 
themselves,  being  ignorant,  and  purposely  kept  in 
that  condition  by  their  taskmasters,  suffered  on,  cen- 
tury after  century,   finding  no  champion  for  their 

83 


84  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

cause  until  the  advent  of  the  Redeemer  of  Mankind, 
preaching  universal  brotherhood  and  equal  rights  for 
all  men. 

But  the  greater  the  wrong  the  longer  it  takes  to 
right  it,  and  Christ's  words  were  but  the  seed  from 
which  has  sprung  our  great  harvest  of  freedom.  It 
has  been  a  harvest  of  slow  growth.  For  ages  after 
the  divine  words  were  spoken  on  behalf  of  the  slave 
by  the  first  and  greatest  of  his  advocates,  slavery 
was  still  regarded  by  many  nations  as  indispens- 
able to  their  existence.  Indeed,  eighteen  centuries 
elapsed  before  there  was  any  appreciable  awakening 
to  the  deep  infamy  of  slavery.  It  occurred  in  Eng- 
land, and  was  the  result  of  the  unwearied  efforts  of 
a  small  band  of  enthusiasts,  whose  labours,  like  those 
of  all  reformers,  were  at  first  derided. 

England,  though  free  from  the  curse  of  slavery 
within  her  own  proper  borders,  had  in  the  course  of 
history  done  as  much  as,  nay,  more  than,  any  other 
nation  to  enslave  the  Negro.  She  had  acquired  him 
in  Africa  by  thousands  in  exchange  for  guns,  knives, 
alcohol,  and  dry  goods ;  had  transported  him  across 
the  Atlantic  to  her  American  cotton  plantations  in  a 
manner  compared  with  which  a  modem  steerage 
emigrant's  experience  may  be  regarded  as  a  luxuri- 
ous cruise;  and  had  then  extracted  the  utmost 
amount  of  work  from  him  by  the  aid  of  the  lash. 

All  the  vested  interests  created  by  this  traffic,  long 
persevered  in,  as  well  as  the  callousness  engendered 
by  its  brutality,  had  to  be  fought  against  England's 
and  overthrown  by  a  small  band  of  Libera-  Retribution, 
tionists,   aided    by    nothing   but  their   enthusiasm 


3 
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L 


Horrors  of  the  Arab  Slave  Trade         85 

and  a  just  cause.  Nevertheless  they  daily  gathered 
strength,  and  finally  succeeded  in  inducing  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament  to  vote  a  hundred  miUion  dollars  for 
the  purchase  and  liberation  of  every  slave  in  every 
country  where  the  British  flag  flies.  This  grand 
event  took  place  in  the  year  1830. 

Three  decades  later  came  that  tremendous  convul- 
sion in  the  United  States,  the  like  of  which  the  world 
has  not  seen.  It  was  resolved  by  the  United  j^^^  pj  j^^ 
States  Government  to  free  the  slaves,  for  Right 
slavery  being  a  system  never  deliberately  ^^^  Umon. 
adopted  by  the  United  States,  but  inherited,  as  it 
were,  from  the  English  Colonial  regime,  of  which 
they  had  by  revolution  become  the  successors.  The 
slaveholding  Southern  States,  resisting  the  new  law, 
sought  to  withdraw  from  the  Union,  and  civil  war 
ensued,  in  which  the  Abolitionists  were  entirely 
successful,  but  at  an  appalling  cost  in  men  and 
money. 

It   has  been  necessary  to   refer  thus  briefly  to 
the  history  of  slavery  because  of  the  strangely  pre- 
valent opinon  that  when  peace  was  restored 
within    the    United    States,    and    slavery  ^  Common 

•^  Error. 

finally  abolished  there,  slavery  no  longer 
existed  in  the  world.  True,  it  was  known  that 
there  was  a  sort  of  domestic  service,  chiefly  of 
women,  akin  to  slavery,  practised  in  China,  Persia, 
and  some  minor  Oriental  countries;  but  that  was 
thought  to  be  all.  It  came,  therefore,  as  a  rude 
shock  to  civilised  humanity  when  travellers  of  un- 
questionable veracity,  such  as  Dr.  Livingstone,  Sir 
Samuel  Baker,  and  Henry  M.  Stanley,  demonstrated 


86  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

that  the  slave  trade  not  only  still  existed  throughout 
vast  regions  in  Africa,  but  was  rampant  there  in  its 
most  atrocious  aspect.  At  first  it  was  hardly  real- 
ised that  the  labours  of  Granville  Sharpe,  Clarkson, 
and  Wilberforce,  the  monetary  sacrifices  of  England, 
and  the  devastating  war  in  America  had,  taken 
together,  fallen  so  far  short  of  complete  triumph. 
But  the  evidence  was  overwhelming  that  such  was 
indeed  the  case,  the  Soudan,  the  Upper  Nile,  and  the 
basins  of  the  Congo  and  the  great  lakes — more  than 
a  third  of  all  Africa,  exceeding  in  area  the  whole  of 
Europe — being  still  the  field  of  the  iniquity.  The 
Sultans  of  petty  states  in  the  Soudan  were  shown  to 
be,  for  the  most  part,  chiefs  of  ferocious  Arab  tribes 
who  thrived  by  raiding  Central  African  villages  and 
carrying  off  their  inhabitants,  whom  they  sold  for 
slaves.  The  cruelties  attending  their  marauding 
operations  were  too  great  to  admit  of  exaggeration. 
"All  over  Africa,"  wrote  Schweinfurth,  a  German 
traveller,  "dried  human  skeletons  show  where  the 
slave-trader  has  passed." 

Acting  under  heavy  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon 
it  by  the  an ti -slavery  humanitarians  in  England 
the  British  Government  coerced  the  Khedive  of 
Egypt  into  signing  a  convention  having  for  its  object 
the  suppression  of  slavery  within  his  dominions.  In 
order  to  carry  out  the  engagement  into  which  he 
had  entered,  the  Khedive  appointed  General  Gordon 
Governor  of  the  Soudan,  and  that  remarkable  man, 
during  the  six  years  that  he  held  that  office,  dis- 
played so  much  energy  and  skill  that  he  succeeded  in 
utterly  eradicating  the  evil  throughout  the  entire 


Horrors  of  the  Arab  Slave  Trade         87 

region  placed  under  his  control.  Nevertheless,  the 
general  result  was  not  so  good  as  had  been  hoped 
for;  the  slave-traders,  despoiled  of  their  hunting- 
grounds  in  the  Egyptian  Soudan,  pursuing  their 
nefarious  occupation  with  redoubled  vigour  on  Lake 
Tanganyika  and  the  Upper  Congo.  With  what  ex- 
tremity of  horror  they  conducted  their 
operations  has  been  so  graphically  de-  j^  words. 
scribed  by  a  Belgian  merchant,  M.  Hodister, 
that  we  make  no  apology  for  quoting  his  account 
in  full. 

It  is  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  [says  M.  Hodister].  A 
great  calm  prevails,  only  the  soft  and  melancholy  cry  of  the 
African  owl  is  to  be  heard.  The  village  sentinels  are  either 
withdrawn,  or  squatting  low,  asleep;  the  houses  are  closed; 
every  one  sleeps;  all  is  repose;  the  sense  of  security  is  abso- 
lute. Suddenly  the  sound  of  a  gun,  then  cries  of  terror  are 
raised,  breaking  the  great  silence,  followed  by  a  fusillade, 
which  seems  to  come  from  all  sides,  piercing  the  straw  walls. 
The  boatmen  have  fired,  leaving  their  canoes  to  their  women; 
they  have  rushed  forward,  attacking  the  village  in  front, 
while  the  others  are  assailing  it  from  the  rear.  The  inhabit- 
ants, suddenly  roused  from  their  sleep,  rush  terrified  from 
their  houses.  They  are  panic-stricken,  and  forget  wives, 
children,  everything.  Their  one  thought  is  of  flight — to 
conceal  themselves  in  the  wood.  The  panic  is  at  its  height; 
rifle  shots,  horrible  cries,  resound,  mixing  with  the  shrieks  of 
fear  from  the  women  and  children.  Then  follow  the  stifled 
noise  of  a  struggle  at  close  quarters,  of  falling  bodies,  a  sup- 
pressed groan,  sharp  cries  of  agony.  The  ground  shakes 
under  the  tread  of  the  combatants  and  fugitives.  Soon 
afterwards  appears  a  star  in  the  blackness  of  the  night,  and  a 
dry,  crackling  sound  is  heard.  It  is  a  detached  hut  fired  by 
the  enemy  to  light  them  in  their  work  without  the  risk  of 
burning  the  whole  village.     Before  doing  that,  they  wish  to 


88  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

pillage  it.  Meanwhile,  a  few  of  the  inhabitants  have  seized 
their  weapons  and  attempt  some  resistance;  but  in  a  little 
time  this  is  overcome  by  superior  numbers.  To  the  noise  of 
the  fight  succeed  the  cries  of  the  prisoners,  of  the  wounded 
and  the  dying.  The  horizon  lightens ;  the  sun  has  risen  sud- 
denly and  illumined  this  field  of  carnage  and  desolation. 
Then  the  Arabs  kill  the  wounded,  bind  their  prisoners,  and 
begin  to  plunder  the  village.  Every  house  is  visited  and  de- 
spoiled of  its  contents.  Where  in  the  evening  there  had  been 
a  pretty  village,  surrounded  by  a  plantation  like  a  covering  of 
verdure,  a  gay  and  happy  population,  there  is  now  a  great 
black,  empty  spot;  for  on  the  completion  of  the  sack  the  vil- 
lage had  been  set  on  fire  and  burned  to  the  ground.  Men, 
women,  and  children,  tied  together  promiscuously,  corpses 
strewing  the  ground,  blood  puddles  emitting  an  acrid  smell, 
and  the  assassins,  horrible  in  their  war  paint,  which  during 
the  struggle  has  run  with  their  sweat  and  blood,  complete  the 
picture. 

Bound  together  in  groups  by  stout  cords  around 
their  waists  and  necks,  the  wretched  procession  of 
captives,  often  two  or  three  thousand  in  number, 
was,  after  an  incident  such  as  this,  marched  to  the 
coast.  Generally,  at  least  a  third  of  them  died  by 
the  way.  The  sick  and  the  lamed,  unable  to  main- 
tain the  desired  pace,  were  weeded  out  at  each  halt- 
ing-place and  ruthlessly  butchered  by  their  captors. 

It  will  require  no  very  inventive  imagination  to 
appreciate  the  magnitude  of  the  difficulties  confront- 
ing the  Belgian  pioneers  in  their  effort  to 
iean^Ta"k  ^uppress  slavery,  carried  on  with  such  fero- 
cious brutality  over  an  area  so  vast  as  Cent- 
ral Africa.  Yet  that  was  but  one  of  several  tasks 
enjoined  upon  them  by  their  King;  but  it  was  first 
in  order  and  importance,  and  until  it  was  accom- 


Horrors  of  the  Arab  Slave  Trade         89 

plished  little  or  no  progress  in  other  respects  could 
be  hoped  for.  ' '  Crime  is  not  punished  as  an  offence 
against  God,  but  as  prejudicial  to  society,"  says  the 
historian  Froude.  King  Leopold  saw  in  the  crime 
of  slavery  both  the  offence  to  God  and  the  prejudice 
to  man,  and  was  prepared  to  exert  his  utmost  energy 
and,  if  necessary,  expend  the  last  franc  of  his  private 
fortune,  to  stamp  out  the  evil.  In  this  heroic  en- 
deavour his  Majesty  was  ably  seconded  by  his  min- 
ister, the  distinguished  Baron  Lambermont,  who  has 
recorded  his  opinion  of  slavery  in  these  words :  ' '  The 
slave  trade  is  the  very  denial  of  every  law,  of  all 
social  order.  Man-hunting  constitutes  a  crime  of 
high  treason  against  humanity.  It  ought  to  be  re- 
pressed wherever  it  can  be  reached,  on  land  as  well 
as  by  sea." 

It  is  not  claimed  that  there  is  anything  original 
in  the  sentiment  that  animates  this  well-expressed 
sentence.  Similar  views  to  those  of  Baron  Lamber- 
mont have  been  held  by  all  great  thinkers  since  the 
establishment  of  the  Christian  religion;  but  it  is 
referred  to  in  this  place  as  an  additional  proof,  if 
any  were  needed,  of  the  high  moral  purpose  under- 
lying the  entei*prise  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  and 
to  show  how  that  moral  purpose  was  sympathised 
with  and  shared  by  his  Majesty's  ministers  and  the 
Belgian  people. 

That  every  religious  sect  without  exception  has 
denounced  slavery  as  the  blackest  spot  sullying  the 
fair  fame  of  the  nineteenth  century  need  not  be  re- 
iterated. In  logical  sequence,  every  religious  sect  was 
prepared   to  assist,  morally  and  materially,  in  the 


90  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

removal  of  a  disgrace  which  was  felt  to  reflect  upon 
every  civilised  community.  In  an  encyclical,  dated 
5th  of  May,  1888,  addressed  by  Pope  Leo  XIII.  to 
the  bishops  of  Brazil,  congratulating  them  upon  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  their  country,  his  Holiness 
referred  to  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  Negro  in 
Central  Africa,  and  called  upon  "all  who  wield 
power,  those  who  sway  empires,  those  who  desire 
that  the  rights  of  nature  and  humanity  be  respected, 
and  those  who  desire  the  progress  of  religion,  to  unite 
everywhere  to  secure  the  abolition  of  this  most 
shameful  and  criminal  traffic." 

This  noble  appeal  touched  the  hearts  of  thousands 
in  every  nation  of  Europe  and  in  America.  For  Car- 
Pope  dinal  Lavigerie,  the  Belgian  prelate,  who 
Leo  XIII.  had  so  long  laboured  on  behalf  of  the  op- 
en Slavery,  pj-gggg^j  Congolese,  it  had  a  special  signifi- 
cance, inspiring  him  with  renewed  courage  and  energy 
in  his  glorious  work.  When,  for  the  first  time  in 
history,  a  small  band  of  Christian  Negroes  from 
Central  Africa  was  received  in  audience  by  the  Pope, 
a  few  days  after  the  issue  of  this  encyclical,  Leo 
XIII.,  replying  to  the  address  of  Cardinal  Lavigerie, 
who  had  presented  them,  said: 

Since  We  have  been  Pope,  Our  regards  have  turned  towards 
that  disinherited  land,  Central  Africa.  Our  heart  has  been 
touched  at  the  thought  of  the  enormous  amount  of  physical 
and  moral  misery  that  exists  there.  We  have  repeatedly 
urged  all  those  who  have  power  in  their  hands  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  hideous  traffic  called  the  clave  trade,  and  to  use  all 
and  every  means  to  secure  that  end.  And,  inasmuch  as  the 
African  continent  is  the  principal  scene  of  this  traffic  and,  as 
it  were,  the  house  of  slavery,  We  recommend  all  missionaries 


Horrors  of  the  Arab  Slave  Trade         91 

who  there  preach  the  Holy  Gospel  to  devote  their  whole 
efforts,  their  whole  life,  to  this  sublime  work  of  redemption. 
But  it  is  upon  you,  Cardinal,  that  We  count  especially  for 
success. 

Cardinal  Lavigerie's  practical  reply  to  this  direct 
personal  appeal  from  the  head  of  his  Church  was  the 
formation  in  Belgium  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society. 
The  agitation  on  behalf  of  the  Negro  was  not  con- 
fined to  Catholics.  Among  the  friends  of  the  move- 
ment were  to  be  found  the  best  of  every  creed  as  of 
every  nation.  Great  conventions  were  held  in  Ger- 
many and  England  having  for  their  object  the  sup- 
pression of  slavery  in  Central  Africa,  and  societies 
formed  in  those  countries;  and  France,  Austria, 
Switzerland,  Italy,  Spain,  and  Portugal  quickly  fol- 
lowed suit.  Though  "man's  inhumanity  to  man 
makes  countless  thousands  mourn, "  it  was  now  sho^\Ti 
to  be  also  potent  to  arouse  some  of  the  best  instincts 
of  human  nature  to  assure  its  suppression.  At  last 
the  horrors  of  the  African  slave  trade  were  adequately 
realised,  and  the  world  applauded  Leopold,  King  of 
the  Belgians,  for  his  arduous  labours  for  its  extinc- 
tion, and  was  anxious  to  strengthen  his  hands  for 
grappling  with  the  still  formidable  work  that  re- 
mained to  do. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  BERLIN  CONFERENCE 

A  CLEAR  view  of  the  position  of  the  State  pre- 
vious   to    the    adoption  of  the    resolutions 
known  as  the  General  Act  of  the  Berlin  Con- 
ference may  be  had  from  a  summary  of  the  signal 
events  which  had  marked  its  formative  period. 

The  Congo  Free  State  was  bom  of  the  Congo 
International  Association  founded  by  his  Majesty, 
Leopold  II.  in  1883,  while  Stanley  was  in  his  service. 
Prior  to  the  legal  foundation  of  the  State,  the  Asso- 
ciation had  obtained  recognition  of  its  sovereignty 
as  hereinbefore  indicated.  By  treaties  concluded  in 
1884  and  1885  with  the  United  States  and  with  many 
of  the  European  Powers,  it  adhered,  on  the  25th  of 
February,  1885,  to  the  resolutions  of  the  Berlin  Con- 
ference, which,  embodied  in  a  General  Act,  established, 
amongst  other  things,  freedom  of  trade  throughout 
the  Congo  Basin,  and  declared  free  navigation  on  the 
xjjg  Congo  River,  its  tributaries,  and  the  lakes 

General  Act  and  canals  connected  therewith.  The  text 
of  Berlin.  ^^  ^^^^  General  Act  of  Berlin,  so  far  as  it 
relates  to  the  Congo,  is  fully  set  forth  in  an  appen- 
dix. The  principal  subjects  contained  in  the  Act 
which  may  concern  the  reader  are  briefly  stated: 

I.  A  Declaration  relative  to  freedom  of  trade  in  the  Basin 

92 


CQ 


The  Berlin  Conference  93 

of  the  Congo,  its  embouchures  and  circumjacent  regions,  with 
other  provisions  connected  therewith. 

2.  A  Declaration  relative  to  the  Slave  Trade,  and  the  opera- 
tions by  sea  or  land  which  furnish  slaves  to  that  trade. 

3.  A  Declaration  relative  to  the  neutrality  of  the  terri- 
tories comprised  in  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo. 

4.  An  Act  of  Navigation  for  the  Congo,  which,  while  hav- 
ing regard  to  local  circumstances,  extends  to  this  river,  its 
affluents,  and  the  waters  in  its  system  (eaiix  qui  leiir  sont 
assimilees),  the  general  principles  enunciated  in  Articles 
CVIII.  and  CXVI.  of  the  Final  Act  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
and  intended  to  regulate,  as  between  the  Signatory  Powers  of 
that  Act,  the  free  navigation  of  the  waterways  separating  or 
traversing  several  States — these  said  principles  having  since 
then  been  applied  by  agreement  to  certain  rivers  of  Europe 
and  America,  but  especially  to  the  Danube,  with  the  modifica- 
tions stipulated  by  the  Treaties  of  Paris  (1856),  of  Berlin 
(1878),  and  of  London  (of  187 1  and  1883). 

5.  An  Act  of  Navigation  for  the  Niger,  which,  while  like- 
wise having  regard  to  local  circumstances,  extends  to  this 
river  and  its  affluents  the  same  principles  as  set  forth  in  Ar- 
ticles CVIII.  and  CXVI.  of  the  Final  Act  of  the  Congress  of 
Vienna. 

6.  A  Declaration  introducing  into  international  relations 
certain  uniform  rules  with  reference  to  future  occupations  on 
the  coasts  of  the  African  Continent. 

The  treaties  which,  before  the  adoption  of  these 
resolutions  on  February  26,  1885,  the  Congo  Free 
vState  had  concluded  with  various  Powers,  were  those 
with  the  United  States  of  America,  dated  April  22, 
1886;  Germany,  8th  November;  Great  Britain,  i6th 
December;  Italy,  19th  December;  Spain,  7th  Janu- 
ary, 1885;  France,  5th  February;  Russia  on  the 
same  day;  Sweden  and  Norway,  loth  February; 
Portugal,   14th  February;    Denmark  and  Belgium, 


94  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

23rd  February,  These  treaties  '  were  notified  to  the 
Conference  on  the  23rd  February,  and  the  neutraUty 
of  the  State  was  declared  and  pubhshed  on  the  ist 
August  in  the  same  year. 

At  the  close  of  the   Berlin  Conference  on    26th 
February,  1885,  Prince  Bismarck  offered  his  tribute 
of   appreciation   for  the   work  which,   de- 
raise  rom  j-jyjj^g  {^g  inspiration  from  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  had,  by  the  Powers  represented, 
been   formulated   into    an    economic   code    for  the 
guidance  of  the  four   nations,   which,    besides   the 
Congo  Free  State,  occupied  the  great  Congo  Basin. 
Prince  Bismarck's  address  has  the  effect  of  oracular 
utterance  in  the  light  of  events  since  the  day  when 
he   wisely  said    that    the   work   of  the    Conference 
would   be,    like  every  human  undertaking,  suscep- 
tible  of   improvement.     The   following   is  the   full 
text  of  Prince  Bismarck's  closing  speech: 

Gentlemen: — Our  Conference,  after  long  and  laborious  de- 
liberations, has  reached  the  end  of  its  work,  and  I  am  happy 
to  state  that,  thanks  to  your  efEorts,  and  to  the  spirit  of  con- 
cihation  which  has  presided  at  our  negotiations,  a  complete 
agreement  has  been  estabhshed  on  all  the  points  of  the  pro- 
gramme which  was  submitted  to  us. 

The  resolutions  which  we  are  on  the  point  of  sanctioning 
assure  to  the  commerce  of  all  nations  free  access  to  the  centre 
of  the  African  Continent.  The  guarantees  with  which  com- 
mercial liberty  in  the  Basin  of  the  Congo  will  be  surrounded, 
and  all  the  arrangements  made  in  the  Acts  of  Navigation  for 
the  Congo  and  the  Niger,  are  of  a  nature  to  offer  to  the  com- 

'  For  full  text  of  the  treaties  with  Germany,  Great  Britain,  France, 
and  Portugal,  and  the  Declaration  exchanged  with  Belgium,  see 
Appendix. 


The  Berlin  Conference  95 

merce  and  tlie  industry  of  all  nations  the  most  favourable 
conditions  for  their  development  and  security. 

By  another  series  of  provisions  you  have  shown  your 
solicitude  for  the  moral  and  material  well-being  of  the  native 
populations,  and  there  is  room  to  hope  that  those  principles, 
dictated  by  a  spirit  of  practical  wisdom,  will  bear  fruit  and 
will  contribute  to  bestow  on  those  populations  the  benefits 
of  civilisation. 

The  practical  conditions  under  which  are  placed  the  vast 
regions  that  you  have  just  opened  to  commercial  enterprise 
have  seemed  to  exact  special  guarantees  for  the  maintenance 
of  peace  and  public  order.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  evils  of 
war  would  assume  a  particularly  disastrous  character  if  the 
natives  were  led  to  take  part  in  the  conflicts  of  civilised 
Powers.  Justly  preoccupied  with  the  dangers  that  such  an 
eventuality  would  entail  in  the  interests  of  commerce  and  of 
civilisation,  you  have  sought  the  means  of  withdrawing  a 
great  part  of  the  African  Continent  from  the  vicissitudes  of 
general  politics,  by  restraining  these  national  rivalries  to  the 
pacific  competition  of  commerce  and  industry. 

In  the  same  category  you  have  aimed  at  preventing  the 
misunderstanding  and  contests  to  which  new  seizures  of  ter- 
ritor\^  on  the  coasts  of  Africa  might  give  rise.  The  declara- 
tion as  to  the  formalities  to  be  complied  with  in  order  to 
make  acquisitions  of  territory  effective  has  introduced  into 
public  right  a  new  regulation,  which  will  contribute  in  its  de- 
gree to  remove  from  international  relations  causes  of  dissen- 
sion and  conflict. 

The  spirit  of  mutual  good  understanding  which  has  dis- 
tinguished your  deliberations  has  equally  presided  over  the 
negotiations  which  have  taken  place  outside  the  Conference, 
with  the  object  of  regulating  difficult  questions  of  delimita- 
tion between  the  parties  which  exercise  sovereign  rights  in  the 
basin  of  the  Congo,  and  which  by  the  nature  of  their  position 
are  called  upon  to  become  the  chief  guardians  of  the  work 
which  we  are  about  to  sanction. 

I  cannot  touch  on  this  subject  without  rendering  my 
homage  to  the  noble  efforts  of  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the 


96  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Belgians,  the  founder  of  a  work  which  is  to-day  recognised  by 
almost  all  the  Powers,  and  which  by  its  consolidation  may 
render  precious  services  to  the  cause  of  humanity. 

Gentlemen,  I  am  charged  by  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  and 
King,  my  august  master,  to  express  to  you  his  warmest  thanks 
for  the  part  that  each  of  you  has  taken  in  the  happy  accom- 
plishment of  the  task  of  the  Conference. 

I  fulfil  a  final  duty  in  making  myself  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
gratitude  that  the  Conference  owes  those  of  its  members  who 
have  discharged  the  difficult  labours  of  the  Commission,  nota- 
bly the  Baron  de  Courcel  and  the  Baron  Lambermont.  I 
also  thank  the  delegates  for  the  valuable  assistance  they  have 
afforded  us,  and  I  associate  with  the  expression  of  that  grati- 
tude the  Secretaries  of  the  Conference,  who  by  the  precision 
of  their  work  have  facilitated  our  task. 

Gentlemen,  the  work  of  the  Conference  will  be,  like  every 
human  undertaking,  susceptible  of  improvement  and  perfec- 
tion; but  it  will  mark,  I  hope,  a  step  forward  in  the  develop- 
ment of  international  relations,  and  will  form  a  new  link  of 
solidarity  between  civilised  nations. 

The  brilliant,  cordial,  and  edifying  final  session  of 
the  Berlin  Conference  presaged  no  such  campaign  of 
Sir  Charles  calumny  as  that  which  has  proceeded  since 
Diike  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  on  gross  misinformation 

Astray.  purveyed  by  interested  persons,  and  on 
what  appears  to  have  been  his  wilful  misreading 
of  a  book  entitled  The  Fall  of  the  Congo  Arabs, 
attacked  the  Congo  State  by  moving  in  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament  on  April  2,  1897,  a  measure  calling 
for  a  new  Conference  to  consider  charges  which  no 
one  had  presented,  but  which,  for  some  inscrut- 
able reason,  this  eminent  parliamentarian  seemed 
anxious  to  dignify  by  sensational  legislation. 

When  the  Berlin  Conference  concluded  its  labours, 


The  Berlin  Conference  97 

it  was  with  manifest  sympathy  for  the  King  of 
the  Belgians  and  his  voluntary  pledge  to  an  African 
task  which  practically  all  the  participating  Powers 
regarded  as  impossible  of  achievement,  such  were 
its  glaring  difficulties.  Now,  after  twenty  years  of 
Belgian  sacrifice,  there  are  those  who,  jealous  of 
the  achievements  in  a  task  they  were  so  anxious  to 
avoid  in  1885,  must  destroy  where  they  cannot  reap 
in  1905.  To  men  of  purpose  and  brave  outlook,  this 
is  merely  one  of  the  many  incivilities  of  civilisation. 
Success  begets  envy  in  one's  neighbour;  failure  often 
confirms  him  in  his  secret  contempt. 

In  Belgium  the  completion  of  the  General  Act  of 
the  Berlin  Conference  evoked  a  patriotic  feeling  of 
satisfaction  which,  in  its  address  to  the  King,  the 
Chamber  of  Representatives  voiced  in  the  following 
language:  "To  your  Majesty  belongs  the  honour  of 
having  conceived  the  African  work,  of  having  pur- 
sued and  developed  it  by  persevering  efforts. 
We  felicitate  your  Majesty  on  these  important  re- 
sults, and,  as  Belgians,  we  are  proud  of  the  solemn 
homage  rendered  by  the  Powers  to  the  generous  and 
progressive  ideas  of  our  Sovereign."  The  Belgian 
nation,  for  a  long  time  uncertain  of  the  result  of  the 
philanthropic  work  of  its  King  in  Central  Africa,  and 
having  observed  that  other  nations  had  shrunk  from 
this  costly  task  of  civilisation,  now  uttered  its  senti- 
ments of  approval  in  many  forms.  In  his  speech 
before  the  Chamber  on  March  10,  1885,  M.  Beer- 
naert,  then  Minister  of  Finance,  said,  amongst  other 
expressions  of  hope  for  the  new  State,  that  the  merit 
of  the  work  accomplished  "belongs  especially  to  the 


9^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

initiation,  to  the  persistent  energy,  and  to  the  sacri- 
fices of  our  King."  Then,  expressing  the  hope  of 
extended  industries — a  hope  that  was  largely,  if  not 
entirely,  the  incentive  which  actuated  the  Powers 
Signatory  to  the  Berlin  Act — the  Minister  concluded 
his  address  with  the  belief  that  the  Congo  would 
offer  "to  our  superabundant  activity,  to  our  indus- 
tries more  and  more  confined,  outlets  by  which  we 
shall  know  how  to  profit.  May  the  enterprising 
spirit  of  our  King  encourage  our  countrymen  to 
seek,  even  at  a  distance,  new  sources  of  greatness 
and  prosperity  for  our  dear  country  "'  The  Belgian 
Chamber  and  Senate  ratified  the  nation's  participa- 
tion in  the  General  Act  of  the  Berlin  Conference 
without  a  dissentient  voice. 

To  the  loyal  address  of  his  Parliament,  the  King 
of  the  Belgians  made  reply,  graciously  acknowledg- 
ing the  support  his  subjects  had  given  him  in  his 
great  African  work. 

There  remained  now  the  making  of  a  Sovereign 
for  the  new  State,  and,  having  regard  to  the  universal 
tribute  of  praise  rendered  to  its  founder  at  the  Berlin 
Conference,  it  was  clear  enough,  in  its  opinion,  who 
should  continue  to  direct  the  destinies  of  a  wild 
territory  in  which  so  much  had  been  accomplished 
in  so  short  a  time.  Belgium,  however,  was  not  pre- 
pared, in  1885,  to  take  over  the  Congo  State  as  her 
colony.  There  were,  at  that  time,  many  consider- 
ations in  Belgium  and  in  the  Congo  to  suggest  cau- 
tion to  a  naturally  conservative  Government.  The 
creation  of  the  Congo  State  had  involved  many  risks 
and  great  difficulties.     It  had  required  a  huge  ex- 


The  Berlin  Conference  99 

penditure  of  money,  nearly  all  of  which  the  King 
had  personally  contributed  without  the  slightest 
assurance  that  his  country  or  his  estate  would  ever 
recover  it,  except  in  so  far  as  his  marvellous  fore- 
sight assured  him  in  this  respect.  If  there  were 
many  difficulties  at  the  beginning  of  his  Majesty's 
African  enterprise,  there  were  still  greater  obstacles 
to  be  surmounted.  To  the  ultra-conservative  sec- 
tion of  the  Belgian  Parliament  the  whole  project  was 
still  enshrouded  in  doubt.  But  the  King,  having 
so  far  borne  the  risks  and  the  cost  of  civilising  the 
savage  African  black  man,  had  also  given  his  country 
the  written  assurance  that  the  result  of  his  labours 
— whatever  they  were  when  realised — should  be  at 
the  disposal,  by  appropriation  or  otherwise,  of  the 
Belgian  nation  "without  costing  her  anything."  As 
the  theory  of  a  purely  personal  union  between  Bel- 
gium and  the  Congo  State  had  found  much  favour, 
it  was  proposed  that  the  King  of  the  Belgians  should 
be  empowered  to  become  the  Sovereign  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  without  in  any  respect  involving  the 
Belgian  nation. 

In  this  eminently  practical  proposal  the  King  had 
taken  the  initiative  in  the  following  letter  to  his 
Council  of  Ministers: 

Gentlemen: — The  work  created  in  Africa  by  the  Inter- 
national African  Association  has  greatly  developed.  A  new 
State  has  been  founded,  its  limits  are  fixed,  and  its  flag  is 
recognised  by  almost  all  the  Powers. 

There  remains  to  organise  a  Government  and  an  Adminis- 
tration on  the  banks  of  the  Congo. 

The  plenipotentiaries  of  the  nations  represented  at  the 
Berlin  Conference  have  shown  themselves  favourable  to  the 


loo         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

work  undertaken,  and  since  then  the  two  Legislative  Cham- 
bers, the  principal  towns  of  the  country,  and  a  great  number 
of  important  bodies  and  associations  have  expressed  to  me 
on  this  subject  tlie  most  sympathetic  sentiments. 

With  such  encouragement  I  could  not  recoil  from  the  prose- 
cution and  achievement  of  a  task  in  which  I  had,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  taken  an  important  part;  and  since,  gentlemen,  you 
consider,  as  I  do,  that  it  may  be  useful  to  the  country,  I  beg 
of  you  to  demand  from  the  Legislative  Chambers  the  assent 
which  is  necessary  to  me. 

The  terms  of  Article  62  of  the  Constitution  describe  by 
themselves  the  situation  which  has  to  be  established. 

King  of  the  Belgians,  I  should  at  the  same  time  be  the 
Sovereign  of  another  State. 

That  State  would  be  independent,  like  Belgium,  and  it 
would  enjoy,  like  her,  the  benefits  of  neutrality. 

It  would  have  to  provide  for  its  own  needs ;  and  experience 
based  on  the  example  of  the  neighbouring  colonies  justifies 
me  in  affirming  that  it  would  dispose  of  the  necessary 
resources. 

For  its  defence  and  its  police  it  would  rely  on  African  forces 
commanded  by  European  volunteers. 

There  would  then  be  between  Belgium  and  the  new  State 
only  a  personal  bond.  I  am  convinced  that  this  union  would 
be  advantageous  for  the  country,  without  there  being  the 
possibility  of  imposing  any  burdens  on  it  in  any  case. 

If  my  hopes  are  realised,  I  shall  find  myself  sufficiently 
rewarded  for  my  efforts.  The  welfare  of  Belgium,  as  you 
know,  gentlemen,  is  the  object  of  my  whole  life. 

Leopold. 

There  were  a  few  obstructionists  in  the  Belgian 
Parliament  who,  impelled  by  an  habitual  attitude 
of  opposition  to  all  that  the  dominant  political  party 
proposed,  offered  considerable  criticism.  They  dis- 
regarded the  similar  expedients  adopted  by  Prussia, 
Holland,  and  Great  Britain  in  reference  respectively 


The  Berlin  Conference  loi 

to  Neuchatel,  Luxembotirg,  and  Hanover.  But  the 
spirit  of  the  Belgian  people  favoured  the  King's 
suggestion,  and  his  Majesty's  Ministers  stood  firmly 
by  him.  When  the  vote  was  called  on  April  28,  1885, 
the  Chamber  passed  the  following  resolution  with 
but  one  dissentient: 

His  Majesty,  Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  is  author- 
ised to  be  the  chief  of  the  State  founded  in  Africa  by  the 
International  Association  of  the  Congo.  The  union  between 
Belgium  and  the  new  State  of  the  Congo  shall  be  exclusively 
personal. 

The  Senate  two  days  later  having  passed  a  sim- 
ilar resolution,  the  King  addressed  the  following 
acknowledgment  to  his  Ministers: 

Gentlemen: — The  Chambers,  by  voting  almost  unani- 
mously the  resolution  that  you  submitted  to  them,  have 
shown  themselves  convinced  that  at  the  same  time  that  I 
was  pursuing,  in  the  general  interest,  the  international  African 
work,  I  had  it  at  heart  to  serve  the  country,  to  contribute  to 
the  augmentation  of  its  wealth,  and  to  increase  its  reputation 
in  the  world.  I  have  asked  you  to  thank,  in  my  name,  the 
Chambers  for  the  mark  of  high  confidence  which  they  have 
given  me.  I  also  beg  of  you  to  accept  for  yourselves  the 
expression  of  my  very  sincere  gratitude.  Believe  me,  gen- 
tlemen, your  very  affectionate 

Leopold. 

Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  had  now  be- 
come Sovereign  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  a  territory 
with  a  population  estimated  as  five  times  larger 
than  the  Belgium  which  he  had  ruled  since  1865. 
Many  foreign  bodies,  philanthropic,  scientific,  and 
commercial,   sent  their  congratulations;    the  Lord 


I02  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Mayor  of  London  visited  the  King  in  state,  and  of- 
fered him  the  felicitations  of  the  British  metropoHs, 
and  all  the  Powers  concerned  in  the  Conventional 
Basin  of  the  Congo  expressed  their  satisfaction  with 
this  happy  consummation  of  his  Majesty's  en- 
lightened undertaking  in  Mid-Africa. 

What,  by  the  Berlin  Conference  had  been  sanc- 
tioned, now  assumed  permanent  form,  organisation, 
and  well-defined  onward  movement.  There  were 
still  difficulties  ahead,  some  of  them  with  the  State's 
neighbours,  France  and  Portugal.  Their  early  ex- 
actions may  be  regarded  as  symptomatic  of  that 
febrific  goading  which  has  now  become  the  mania 
of  lesser  bodies  elsewhere.  Subsequent  conventions 
with  France  and  Portugal  somewhat  assured  the 
Congo  State  that  its  onward  march  would  not  be 
obstructed  by  these  Powers.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  exalted  views  and  edifying  principles  so  generally 
prevalent  at  the  Berlin  Conference  soon  became 
stale  and  innocuous  in  the  official  mind  of  the  other 
Powers  who  had  subscribed  to  precepts  which,  from 
subsequent  indifference  or  self-interest,  were  dis- 
regarded. Not  the  least  among  the  pledges  of  the 
Powers  of  the  Berlin  Conference  was  that  designed 
to  regulate  the  importation  of  alcohol.  Consistent 
with  the  Christianising  aims  of  its  Sovereign,  the 
Congo  Free  State  has  fulfilled  this  pledge  in  a  man- 
ner to  put  its  neighbours  to  shame  for  the  large 
percentage  of  revenue  they  derive  from  a  debasing 
liquor  traffic. 

So  if  the  young  State  started  upon  its  progressive 
course   in    1885-87,  having  paid  a  heavy  price   to 


The  Berlin  Conference  103 

France  and  to  Portugal  for  freedom  to  develop  under 
the  government  of  the  strong  personality  of  its  mag- 
nanimous Sovereign,  it  was  perhaps  because  such  a 
course  would  secure  the  Congo  State  to  the  Belgian 
nation  in  accordance  with  the  preconceived  purpose 
of  its  King.  By  the  Congo-French  Convention  the 
basin  of  the  Kwilu  and  the  left  bank  of  the  Congo, 
from  Stanley  Pool  as  far  north-eastward  as  its  ex- 
plorations had  attained,  were  assigned  to  France. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  insured  to  the  Congo  Free  State 
what  constitutes  its  outlet  to  the  sea,  the  possession 
of  the  district  of  the  Cataracts,  and  the  towns  of 
Boma  and  Banana  at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo.  The 
Congo-Portuguese  Convention  assigned  to  Portugal 
territory  south  of  the  Congo  as  far  as  Noki,  and  along 
the  parallel  of  Noki  to  its  intersection  by  the  river 
Kwango,  which  from  that  point  was  designated  as 
the  boundary  in  a  southerly  direction.  The  terri- 
torial assignments  of  these  conventions  were  sub- 
sequently modified,  and  Germany  and  Great  Britain 
have  since  acquired  the  large  areas  of  the  Congo 
Basin  lying  east  of  Lake  Tanganyika  and  its  parallel 
north  and  south. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  ECONOMIC  REGIME  OF  THE  BERLIN  ACT 

THE    Berlin    Act   and   the    economic,    that    is, 
domestic,  regime  which  it  sought  to  estab- 
lish in  the   Congo   Basin  occupied  by  Ger- 
many, France,  Great  Britain,  Portugal,  and  the  Free 
State,  were,  with  various  inadequacies  and  experi- 
Eariy  mental   defects,   the   logical   expression   of 

Colonial  the  drift  that  political  science  as  applied 
^^^^^y  to  the  law  of  nations  had  assumed  in  Eu- 
rope as  early  as  1874.  Under  the  operation  of 
the  old  Facte  Colonial,  the  policy  which  prevailed 
in  the  colon  es  of  the  European  Powers  discrim- 
inated greatly  against  the  subjects  of  all  save  the 
mother  country.  The  commercial  policy  of  such 
colonies  was  that  of  the  Power  which  governed  the 
colonial  territory,  whether  that  was  an  extension  of 
the  home  territory  or  merely  a  dependency. 

Some  marked  theoretics  freighted  the  course  of 
international  life  as  the  time  approached  when  ex- 
ploration had  revealed  all  the  colonising  areas  which 
the  known  earth  contained.  Europeans  and  their 
descendants  already  occupied,  under  different  forms 
of  law,  as  states,  colonies,  protectorates,  leaseholds, 
spheres  of  influence,  over  82  per  cent,  of  the  lands 
of  this  planet.     Those  who  followed  the  evolution 

104 


^v^fetv^-aS^^^Sj^v'^' 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     105 

of  the  law  of  nations  were  impressed  by  an  African 
situation  in  1884  which  offered  opportunity  for  ex- 
perimentation with  new,  and  perhaps  more  elastic, 
economic  principles  for  the  regulation  of  colonial 
interests  in  regions  where  the  character  of  the  coun- 
try, its  natural  features,  such  as  waterways  and 
coastal  advantages,  and  the  juxtaposition  of  several 
governments,  tended  to  a  conflict  detrimental  gen- 
erally to  the  civilisation  of  such  possessions  and  their 
contributions  to  the  markets  of  the  world. 

In  the  Annates  de  Vlnstitut  de  Droit  International, 
vols.  iii.  and  vii.,  are  to  be  found  the  various 
resolutions  of  Prof.  Egide  Arntz  relative  to  practical 
and  co-operative  jurisdiction  in  the  Congo  Basin. 
These  were  offered  on  September  7,  1883,  at  the 
Munich  meeting  of  the  Institute.  But  long  before, 
namely,  in  1878,  M.  Gustave  Moynier  had  raised  the 
question  of  a  concerted  civilising  movement  and  the 
adoption  of  a  scheme  of  political  regulation  in  the  re- 
gion of  the  Congo.  M.  Emile  Laveleye  and  the  late 
Sir  Travers  Twiss  had,  thereafter,  also  discussed  the 
question  before  the  Institute.  The  essays  of  Pro- 
fessor Arntz  and  Sir  Travers  Twiss,  which  embody 
their  respective  views  on  what  to  them  at  that  time 
appeared  to  be  a  signal  opportunity  for  applying 
principles  of  colqnial  government  as  yet  unestab- 
lished  by  tests  of  practice,  are  fully  set  forth  in 
the  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Re- 
lations. 

The  Berlin  Conference  of  November  15,  1884,  may 
be  regarded  as  the  crystallised  result  of  the  interest 
manifested  in  respect  of  the  Mid-African  situation 


io6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

by  the  learned  bodies  and  the  eminent  legal  authori- 
ties indicated,  and  also  as  the  outcome  of  Germany's 
Experi-  tactful  method  of  superseding  the  then 
ments  of  the  imminent  treaty  between  Great  Britain 
BerUn  Act  ^^^  Portugal  signed  on  February  26,  1884, 
but  thereafter  abrogated.  As  pointed  out  in  an- 
other chapter,  the  British-Portuguese  treaty  met  with 
active  opposition  in  Germany  and  in  England. 

It  was  during  the  agitation  of  this  feeling  that 

the  Conference  was  summoned  at  the  instance  of 

Germany.     If  one  could  analyse  in  extenso 

German       ^^  ^-j^^  essentials  which  so  aptly  informed 

Astuteness  ,111 

Prince  Bismarck  of  Germany  s  masked  ad- 
vantages in  such  a  Conference,  the  Iron  Chancellor 
would  stand  revealed  as  an  early  monument  to  the 
German  astuteness  of  to-day.  In  creating  an  Areo- 
pagus of  the  fourteen  Powers  assembled  at  Berlin 
and  referring  to  it  the  questions  which,  if  unsettled, 
would  have  led  to  conflicts,  combinations,  and  con- 
fusion prejudicial  to  German  East  Africa,  Prince 
Bismarck's  workmanship  surpassed  the  materials 
which  his  skill  employed.  As  the  Prince  said  at  the 
final  session  of  the  Conference,  the  lofty  aims  and 
political  idealities  proclaimed  during  its  earlier  ses- 
sions would,  when  translated  into  facts,  offer  oppor- 
tunity for  improvement.  Indeed,  time  and  the 
practical  application  of  its  precepts,  so  enthusias- 
tically proclaimed,  have  revealed  the  theorist  where 
the  man  of  practical  political  sense  would  better  have 
WTitten  certain  clauses  of  the  General  Act.  As  it  steed 
in  1885,  it  cannot  be  regarded  with  that  awe  which 
certain  persons  manifest  when  they  misinterpret  its 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     107 

inconclusive  preachments.  Some  praise  it  as  "the 
inauguration  of  a  truly  new  era  in  colonial  affairs." 
Others,  condemning  it  without  reserve,  speak  of  it  as 
"the  work  of  theorisers  without  experimental  basis." 
A  fair  estimate  of  this  unique  political  palaver,  as 
embodied  in  its  General  Act,  probably  lies  j^ie  Act 
somewhere  between  the  extravagant  praise  Praised  and 
and  the  untempered  condemnation  fre-  Condemned 
quently  bestowed  upon  it.  If,  from  a  legal  and 
political  point  of  view,  it  can  be  regarded  as  only  a 
tissue  of  the  substance  it  aimed  at,  the  fact  remains 
that  the  Berlin  Conference  has  more  than  justified 
itself  by  guiding,  often  dispelling  commercial  rival- 
ries which,  in  their  tmchecked  development,  might 
have  nullified  the  great  sacrifices  of  Belgian  blood 
and  money  in  the  cause  of  African  civilisation.  The 
Conference  entered  the  forum  when  many  compli- 
cations, arising  from  competing  expeditions,  con- 
flicting explorations,  unregulated  trading  operations, 
the  advent  of  evil  adventurers,  the  devastating 
slave  trade,  and  a  combination  of  other  causes — 
commercial  and  political — had  provoked  the  dis- 
trust and  avarice  frequently  observed  when  several 
European  peoples  occupy  in  common  a  vast  and 
fertile  territory  inhabited  by  savage  tribes.  At  a 
meeting  of  a  Committee  of  the  Conference  held  on 
December  10,  1884,  Mr.  Kasson,  the  Plenipotentiary 
of  the  United  States,  gave  utterance,  in  retrospect 
of  early  American  colonisation,  to  expressions  of 
historic  fact  which  graphically  portray  Mid-African 
conditions  twenty  years  ago: 

The  first  colonies  founded  in  America  [said  Mr.  Kasson] 


io8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

have  been  the  work  of  different  nationaUties.  Even  there, 
where  at  first  emigration  was  of  a  free  and  peaceful  nature, 
foreign  Governments  were  soon  installed,  with  military  forces 
to  support  them.  Wars  immediately  broke  out  in  Europe. 
The  belligerents  had  colonies,  and  soon  the  field  of  battle 
spread  to  America.  In  the  heat  of  the  struggle,  each  of  the 
belligerents  sought  allies  amongst  the  native  tribes,  where 
they  thus  excited  their  natural  inclination  for  violence  and 
plunder.  Horrible  acts  of  cruelty  ensued,  and  massacres 
where  neither  age  nor  sex  were  spared.  The  knife,  the  lance, 
and  the  torch  transformed  peaceful  and  happy  colonies  into 
deserts. 

The  present  condition  of  Central  Africa  reminds  one  much 
of  that  of  America  when  that  continent  was  first  opened  up  to 
the  European  world.  How  are  we  to  avoid  a  repetition  of  the 
unfortunate  events,  to  which  I  have  just  alluded,  amongst  the 
numerous  African  tribes?  How  are  we  to  guard  against  ex- 
posing our  merchants,  our  colonies,  and  their  goods  to  these 
dangers?  How  shall  we  defend  the  lives  of  our  missionaries 
and  religion  itself  against  the  outburst  of  savage  customs  and 
barbarous  passions? 

Finding  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  those  whom  v/e  are 
urging  to  undertake  the  work  of  civilisation  in  Africa,  it  is  our 
duty  to  save  them  from  such  regrettable  experiences  as 
marked  the  corresponding  phase  in  America. 

Whatever  defective  novelty  may  still  reside  in  the 
Berlin  Act,  the  Conference  which  begot  it  gave  an 
The  Real  immense  impetus  to  the  great  work  of 
Value  of  African  civilisation.  It  eliminated  move- 
the  Act  ments  by  the  various  Powers  which  were 
accomplishing  little  or  nothing  for  lack  of  definition 
and  unity.  It  organised  a  scramble,  so  to  speak, 
into  an  orderly  and  intelligently  directed  set  of 
enterprises,  chief  among  which  were  those  urged 
forward  by  the  King  of  the  Belgians  and  his  diligent 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     109 

subjects.  In  that  amplitude  of  pledges,  which  when 
applied  to  them  the  other  Signatory  Powers  found 
it  convenient  to  forget,  little  Belgium  strove  mightily 
not  only  to  discharge  her  obligations  under  the  Ber- 
lin Act,  but  to  demonstrate  her  own  innate  genius 
for  the  work  of  colony-building  and  civilisation.  It 
is  perhaps  in  the  inevitable  result  of  this 
spirit  that  we  find  the  explanation  of  Bel-  Dominance 
gian  dominance  and  Belgian  progress  far 
excelling  that  of  its  African  neighbours. 

In  the  United  States  the  Berlin  Act  has  not  met 
with  the  universal  respect  of  competent  legal  author- 
ities. It  provided  no  means  for  its  own  enforce- 
ment, and  left  the  national  committees,  which  were 
to  carry  out  certain  of  its  provisions,  without  ma- 
chinery and  without  that  central  authority  essential 
to  its  life.  It  also  appears  that  the  national  com- 
mittees never  acted.  Each  of  the  Powers,  supreme 
within  the  border  of  its  own  African  territory,  pur- 
sued a  course  which  it  believed  was  best  calculated 
to  develop  the  resources  ,and  the  civilisation  of  that 
region  of  the  Congo  Basin  in  which  it  ruled.  Never- 
theless, the  General  Act  had  delimited  the  territory 
comprised  in  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo ; 
defined  the  domain  occupied  therein  respectively  by 
Germany,  France,  Great  Britain,  Portugal,  and  the 
Free  State;  applied  to  the  entire  Congo  Basin  the 
princij^le  of  freedom  of  commerce  and  of  naviga- 
tion, and  concerted  the  aims  of  all  the  Powers  to 
the  suppression  of  the  iniquitous  slave  trade  and 
the  horrible  practice  of  cannibalism.  It  did  not  deal 
specifically  with  questions  of  territorial  sovereignty, 


I  lo  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

nor  with  the  internal  public  and  private  land  system, 
nor,  in  fact,  with  any  act  or  principle  of  the  civil  or 

military  government  of  a  State.  It  did. 
Commerce   howcver,  scck  to  restrict  the  duties  upon 

the  Congo  and  its  affluents,  and  stipulated 
that  upon  these  highways  there  should  be  open  to 
all  nations  the  freedom  to  trade  and  to  navigate. 
As  Baron  Descamps  aptly  says  in  his  essay  on  Gov- 
ernment Civilisation  in  New  Countries: 

The  broad-minded  measures  of  the  Berlin  Conference  did 
away  with  many  of  the  existing  anomaHes.  Doubtless,  the 
general  application  of  those  measures  to  all  colonies  would 
have  been  a  step  in  the  right  direction;  but  while  their  gen- 
eral adoption  could  have  been  justified  on  the  same  grounds 
as  their  special  application  to  the  Congo,  the  Conference  would 
not  have  been  able  to  accomplish  such  a  gigantic  reform  of 
distributive  equity.  The  Conference,  however,  did  what  it 
could  in  this  direction.  It  felt  that  the  impracticability  of  the 
complete  scheme  did  not  prevent  its  partial  application ;  that 
it  was  not  easy  to  reform  the  whole  world  at  once,  especially 
the  colonial  world;  that  the  field  of  experience  on  which  it 
could  operate  was  large  enough;  and  that,  last  but  not  least, 
the  nature  of  the  countr}'-,  where  the  Government  was  as  yet 
more  or  less  insecure,  was  calculated  to  induce  those  con- 
cerned to  make  exceptional  sacrifices. 

The  Conference  therefore  made  the  following  regulations 
for  the  Congo  Basin : 

Art.  I.  The  trade  of  all  nations  shall  enjoy  complete 
freedom. 

Art.  2.  All  flags,  without  distinction  of  nationality,  shall 
have  free  access. 

Art.  3,  §  2.  All  differential  dues  on  vessels  as  well  as  on 
merchandise  are  forbidden. 

Art.  5-  No  Power  which  exercises  or  shall  exercise  sover- 
eign rights  in  the  above-mentioned  regions  shall  be  allowed 


>  J     '    p 


pq 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     m 

to  grant  therein  a  monopoly  or  favour  of  any  kind  in  matters 
of  trade. 

The  five  Powers  occupying  and  governing  the 
Congo  Basin  have  here  assumed  certain  obhgations 
in  reference  to  the  commercial  regime  which  Freedom  of 
should  prevail  in  their  territory.  There  Commerce 
shall  be  freedom  to  trade,  and  to  navigate  i^efined 
in  pursuit  of  commerce;  there  shall  be  no  differ- 
ential duties  imposed;  there  shall  be  no  monopoly 
in  matters  of  trade.  In  the  fourth  protocol  of  the 
Berlin  Conference,  Baron  Lambermont's  report  in- 
cludes a  definition  of  what  the  Conference  meant  by 
monopoly  "in  matters  of  trade."  This  statesman 
declared  that : 

No  doubt  whatever  exists  as  to  the  strict  and  literal  sense 
which  should  be  assigned  to  the  term  in-  commercial  matters. 
It  refers  exclusively  to  traffic,  to  the  unlimited  power  of  every 
one  to  sell  and  to  buy,  to  import  and  to  export,  products  and 
manufactured  articles.  No  privileged  situation  can  be  cre- 
ated under  this  head,  the  way  remains  open  without  any 
restrictions  to  free  competition  in  the  domain  of  commerce,  but 
the  obligations  of  local  Governments  do  not  go  beyond  that 
point. 

Notwithstanding  the  explicit  nature  of  this  defin- 
ition, those  who,  for  reasons  which  it  is  not  the  pur- 
pose of  this  volume  to  expose  in  detail,  condemn 
the  governmental  system  of  the  Congo  Free  State, 
and  declare  that  the  General  Act  of  the  Berlin  Con- 
ference aimed  at  much  more  than  insuring  the 
common  right  (freedom)  of  all  nations  to  pursue  le- 
gitimate trade  in  the  Basin  of  the  Congo.    How  much 


112  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

more,  and  precisely  what  the  Act  aims  at,  according 
to  hostile  commentators,  varies  with  the  capacity 
for  exaggeration,  or  the  speciousness  in  argument, 
of  the  critic.  Some  declare  that  freedom  in  matters 
of  trade  means  that  anybody  may  invade  the  Congo 
Basin  and  barter  with  natives  for  the  produce  of  the 
soil  and  the  chase,  laws  respecting  private  property 
and  providing  regulations  to  govern  traffic  notwith- 
standing. In  his  essay  on  Principles  of  Government 
in  the  Congo  Free  State  '  the  author  briefly  indicates 

the  motif  of  King  Leopold's  rule  in  Central 
of  Congo  Africa  and  the  cogent  reasons  for  the  sys- 
Govern-      -^gj^i  which  has  made  that  rule  the  envy  of 

persons  whose  faculty  of  perception  is  not 
as  dormant  to-day  as  it  was  in  1885,  when  it  was 
lazily  assumed  that  the  salvation  of  a  territory,  not 
worth  much  materially,  was  being  imposed  iipon  an 
enthusiastic  and  impractical  kingly  philanthropist. 
Amongst  other  things,  this  essay  contains  the  fol- 
lowing exposition  of  the  system  of  internal  govern- 
ment by  which  the  Congo  Free  State  and  its  people 
have  morally  and  materially  prospered.  It  is,  in 
substance,  the  definition  of  Congolese  policy  stated 
by  his  Majesty,  King  Leopold: 

.  .  .  The  principles  of  the  Congolese  system  of  internal 
government  appear  to  be  in  entire  conformity  with  the  Gen- 
eral Act  of  Berlin,  wherein  freedom  of  trade  is  assured  to  the 
subjects  of  all  nations.  This  signifies  the  liberty  to  sell  and 
to  buy  in  a  legitimate  way,  not  in  a  way  peculiar  to  the  the- 
ories of  Congo  despoilers.  It  is  repugnant  to  law,  and  disturb- 
ing to  civil  order  and  progress,  to  permit  the  product  of  the 

*  September,  1904. 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     113 

land  to  be  purchased  from  any  person  but  its  legitimate  owner. 
Congo  law  represses  theft,  the  insidious  encouragement  of 
which  would  appear  to  be  the  aim  of  those  who  so  grossly 
misinterpret  the  principle  of  Freedom  of  Commerce.  A  re- 
spect for  property  is  essential  to   all   governments 

which  hope  to  endure,  and  the  law  of  this  attitude     ^^^^    °^ 
1  Property 

is  universal   in  all   civilised  communities.     Trade, 

whether  free  or  restricted,  could  not  exist  on  any  other  basis. 
The  forces  of  civilisation  are  paralysed  without  it,  and  un- 
tamed natives  are  left  to  savage  internecine  strife. 

The  principles  of  the  Congo  Government  are  that  the  soil 
shall  maintain  those  who  develop  its  resources  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  sower  and  the  reaper.  The  civilisation  of  the 
native  by  industry  and  other  forms  of  instruction  in  the 
attributes  of  order,  civic  life,  and  all  that  he  may  be  capable 
of  absorbing  of  enlightened  freedom.  For  the  privilege  of 
residing  within  the  sphere  of  a  State  so  governed,  the  white 
man  is  the  most  taxed  member  of  society  in  the  world. 
Shall  savages  alone  be  exempt  from   labour   and 

iust  contribution  to  organised  government  ?     Shall     ^"^^^  *  ® 

Great 
the  white  man's  rule  teach  the  black  that  idleness,        civiliser 

craft,  animal  instincts,  predatory  habits  in  gaining 
his  irregular  subsistence,  are  the  foundations  of  civilisation? 
Or  shall  the  white  man  by  precept   and  example,   and  by 
humane  but  positive  insistence,  train  the  savage  in  the  ways 
of  law  and  order,  industry  and  thrift? 

Reverting  for  a  moment  to  the  assertion  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  Congo  Free  State  is  primarily  responsible  for 
what  its  detractors  allege  to  be  the  enslavement  of  the  native, 
I  fail  to  find  conviction  in  unfounded  statements  often  re- 
peated, and  arguments  upon  wrong  premises,  varied  only  in 
form,  not  substance.  Ignorance  of  the  motif  impelling  Congo 
State  method  and  movement  has  misled  those  who  have 
brought  prejudice  to  a  subject  worth  the  attention  only  of  the 
broadest  minds.  The  system,  which  is  the  object  of  attack 
when  new  stories  of  atrocities  are  scarce,  is  briefly  stated  to 
be  to  devote  the  revenue  derived  from  the  State's  property 

8 


114  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

as  much  as  possible  to  cover  the  State's  expenses;  that  is  to 
say,  to  the  moral  and  material  organisation  and  regeneration 
of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants ;  to  resort  to  the  imposition 
of  a  tax  in  specie  as  rarely  as  possible ;  and  to  exact  a  few 
hours'  labour  monthly  from  the  natives,  in  order  to  give  them 
the  habit  of  work,  which  is  the  greatest  of  civilising  precepts. 
In  this  connection  the  Congo  Government  goes  ba- 
th N  f  yond  its  duty,  and  pays  the  natives  for  this  work, 
teaching  them  the  relation  between  labour  and 
its  reward.  The  habit  of  work,  when  formed,  will  elevate 
the  natives  from  the  savage  instincts  which  tend  to  debase 
them  in  idleness.  The  exaction  of,  and  payment  for,  forty- 
odd  hours'  work  each  month  from  an  able-bodied  native,  for 
whose  redemption  from  savagery  millions  of  money  and 
many  lives  have  been,  and  are  being,  spent,  is  a  lesser  tax 
than  the  white  man  pays  on  his  meagre  income  from  daily  toil 
in  the  cities  of  London,  New  York,  Paris,  and  Berlin.  The 
county  road  tax  alone,  levied  upon  the  farmer  in  the  United 
States,  is  a  greater  imposition  than  this.  Those  who  have  the 
hardihood  to  argue  that  the  enforced  practice  of  habits  of 
industry  upon  savages  in  an  African  colony,  less  than  twenty 
years  in  the  making,  is  an  unjust  and  iniquitous  burden,  can 
have  no  conception  of  the  condition  of  the  white  slaves  of  the 
Midland  counties  of  England,  no  understanding  of  life  and  its 
burdens  in  the  centres  of  the  world's  highest  civilisation. 

The  Congo  Free  State,  like  all  other  States,  acquired  pos- 
session of  ownerless  lands,  not  by  bloody  wars  which  have 
characterised  the  acquisitive  and  "civilising"  methods  of  its 
principal  mentor  in  morals,  but  only  after  treaty  with  the 
natives  who  happened  to  occupy  those  lands  in  their  savagery. 
All  lands  which  the  natives  occupy  with  at  least  the  rudiments 
of  peaceful  industry  are  guaranteed  to  them.     What  for  ages 

had  been  unused  and  undeveloped  for  the  good  of 
The  State  ,  .     ,         ^.  .       •  .  ,     . 

,      ,  mankmd,  native  or  foreign,  is  now  being  success- 

fully exploited  by  the  State.  Before  this  indus- 
trial, civil,  and  moral  era,  the  vast  Congo  forests  were  not 
even  traversed  by  the  indolent  native,  so  long  as  he  could 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     115 

acquire  liis  food  in  the  sluggard  idleness  which  to  this  day 
prevails  throughout  neighbouring  African  colonies. 

The  Congo  Free  State  is  pursuing  a  policy  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  its  forests,  far  in  advance  of  other  colonies,  by  en- 
forcing the  replanting  of  rubber  trees  and  vines  as  fast  as  the 
old  growth  has  been  sapped,  thus  ensuring  to  future  genera- 
tions the  results  of  Belgian  foresight  and  wisdom. 

The  Congo  Free  State  does  not  trade  as  a  State.  Like 
other  governments  it  is  interested  in  the  development  of  the 
Government  domain  by  its  inhabitants.  The  United  States 
first  occupied  the  wild  lands  of  North  America  by  conquest  of, 
and  treaty  with,  the  Indians.  It  then  threw  the  land  open  to 
the  pre-emption  of  its  citizens  under  certain  restrictions  and 
impositions;  for  instance,  to  improve  the  land  within  a  cer- 
tain time,  to  maintain  its  yield,  to  pay  taxes,  build  roads,  and 
in  other  ways  contribute  to  the  cost  of  administering  and 
improving  the  State. 

After  vainly  waiting  seven  years  for  the  influx  of  foreign 
capital  and  enterprise  to  freely  enter  upon  its  public  lands, 
and  assume  the  burdens  and  enjoy  the  gain  of 
developing  the  forests  for  the  wealth  they  con-  v^®  *^*® 
tained,  the  Congo  Free  State  proceeded  to  cause  a  ^j^^  Land 
part  of  its  lands  (one-fourth)  to  be  developed  en 
regie  (by  trustees),  in  order  that  the  land  might  at  least  con- 
tribute to  the  creation  and  support  of  the  public  works  to  be 
established  within  the  State  for  the  benefit  and  betterment 
of  its  native  population.  Another  part  (one -fourth)  of  the 
forests  have  been  conceded  to  private  companies,  in  harmony 
with  the  system  followed  by  France,  England,  Germany,  and 
Portugal,  whose  territories  are  contiguous  to  the  Congo  Free 
State.  But  here  again  we  have  an  exhibition  of  far-seeing 
statesmanship,  almost  unparalleled  in  colonial  history.  Instead 
of  doling  out  the  State  lands  absolutely  to  favoured  conces- 
sionaires, which  has  been  the  invariable  practice  in  other  colo- 
nies, the  Belgians  have  exacted  a  tremendous  guarantee  and  a 
growing  revenue  from  those  who  exploit  the  natural  resources 
of  its  forests,  by  retaining  in  some  cases  a  half  interest  in  the 


II 6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

capital  of  the  concessionary  companies.     As  an  example  of 

practical  politics,  this  admirable  system  alone  constitutes  a 

material  heritage  to  the  future  of  the  Congo.     The  revenue 

thus  annually  accruing  to  the  support  of  the  Congo  budget 

must  play  materially  in  the  development  and  wel- 

The  Con^      f^^.^  ^^  ^-^e  State.     Moreover,  while  the  State  has 

^  .      such  large  influence  in  the  internal  affairs  of  its 

Companies  ° 

concessionary  companies,  it  has  a  practical  power 
within  the  companies  in  addition  to  the  State  law.  This  dual 
control  should  ensure  a  commercial  policy  in  harmony  with 
the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  the  underlying  principles  of  the 
State's  government.  Under  this  system,  the  Congo  Free 
State  now  exports  to  European  markets  5000  tons  of  rubber 
annuall}^  where  a  few  years  ago  this  great  asset  lay  hidden  in 
a  forest  upon  which  none  of  the  Powers  Signatory  to  the 
General  Act  of  Berlin  desired  to  spend  its  means  or  its 
labour. 

One  of  the  counts  in  the  complaint  by  certain  perfervid 
pamphleteers  in  Great  Britain  against  King  Leopold  is  that 
there  is  no  freedom  of  commerce  in  that  part  of  the  Congo 
Basin  occupied  by  the  Free  State.  Freedom  of  Commerce 
under  the  definition  of  such  persons  is  the  indiscriminate  right 
of  traders  and  adventurers,  and  purveyors  of  arms  and  spir- 
ituous liquors,  to  swoop  down  on  the  State  and  private  lands 
of  the  Congo,  incite  the  native  to  invade  the  forest,  steal  rub- 
ber product  and  sell  it  to  the  trader  at  the  latter's  price.  One 
need  not  dwell  upon  the  preposterous  nature  of 

J  1.1  ^  J     that  transparent  scheme  of  commercial  freedom, 
and  Plunder  ^ 

Private  property  is  nowhere  open  to  unlawful  in- 
vasion. Public  property  is  not  open  to  the  spoliation  of  ad- 
venturers and  vandals.  The  5000  tons  of  rubber  gathered 
by  the  several  industrial  forces  at  work  in  the  Congo  can  be 
purchased  by  traders  as  well  at  Matadi  as  at  Stanley  Pool,  at 
Boma  as  well  as  at  Antwerp,  at  a  proper  price.  If  the  freedom 
of  commerce  defined  by  Congophobes  were  permitted  to 
prevail  in  any  civilised  or  uncivilised  country  in  the  world, 
anarchy  and  tribal  wars  would  ensue,  all  rights  of  property 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     1 17 

would  be  violated,  and  the  larcenous  proclivities  of  the  Afri- 
can Negro  would  be  encouraged.  In  the  case  of  the  Congo,  a 
reign  of  terror  would  decimate  the  native  population,  and 
denude  the  forests  which  the  wise  laws  of  the  State  endeavour 
to  preserve.  Upon  their  ruins  the  "savagery"  of  the  white 
man  would  have  succeeded  that  of  the  black. 

As  already  indicated,  Congo  law  very  properh'  forbids  in- 
vaders of  the  State  from  buying  the  product  of  private  pro- 
perty from  any  one  except  the  owner.  In  that  respect  it  does 
not  depart  from  the  law  of  every  other  country.  The  desire 
of  adventurers  to  buy  rubber  and  ivory  direct  from  the  natives 
is  not  sufficient  reason  for  permitting  the  latter  to  trespass 
upon  private  property  for  the  purpose  of  stealing  its  product. 
Once  establish  a  traffic  on  these  lines,  and  you  put  a  premium 
on  the  crime  of  theft,  and  pit  the  spear  of  every  native  against 
his  brother  in  their  rubber-hunting  areas. 

The  difference  between  the  Congo  system  of  colonisation 
and  those  of  its  principal  critic  is  the  difference  between  a 
definite  State  policy  which,  having  the  land  and  its  resources 
for  its  material  basis,  applies  humane  measures  for  enforcing 
its  development  for  the  benefit  and  civilisation  of  the  native, 
and  the  permanent  constitution  of  the  State,  and  a  policy 
the  baneful  influence  and  unprogressive  operation  of  which 
can  be  observed  in  the  protectorates  and  colonies  of  one  of  its 
neighbours,  where  the  budgets  are  to  a  large  degree  sustained 
by  the  importation  of  alcohol  as  a  beverage — a  "civilising 
influence"  which,  to  the  honour  of  the  Belgians,  is  almost 
entirely  excluded  from  the  Congo  Free  State.     ... 

The  foregoing  exposition  of  internal  policy  may 
be  regarded  as  a  brief  statement  of  the  principles 
which  underlie  the  system  of  government  in  the 
Congo  Free  State. 

That  the  United  States  did  not  construe  an  il- 
logical meaning  into  the  phrase  "freedom  of  com- 
merce," and  warp  it  out  of   all   semblance  to    its 


ii8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

natural  character,  is  evidenced  by  the  terms  of  its 

treaty  with  the  Free  State  made  seven  years  after 

the   promulgation   of   the   General  Act  of 

Trcfltv 

between  ^he  Berlin  Conference,  during  all  of  which 
Congo  State  time  the  Congo  State  authorities  had  acted 
and  United  ^p^j^  ^j^g  interpretation  of  the  phrase  indi- 
cated in  Baron  Lambermont's  definition, 
and  in  the  learned  opinions  of  Maitres  Barboux,  Nys, 
Van  Berchem,  and  Picard. 

Article  I.  of  the  treaty  of  April  2,  1892,  between 
the  United  States  and  the  Independent  State  of  the 
Congo  reads: 

The  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  the  Independent  State  of 
the  Congo  in  the  United  States  of  America  and  •  those  of 
the  United  States  of  America  in  the  Independent  State  of  the 
Congo  shall  have  reciprocally  the  right,  on  conforming  to  the 
laws  of  the  country,  to  enter,  travel,  and  reside  in  all  parts  of 
their  respective  territory;  to  carry  on  business  there;  and 
they  shall  enjoy  in  this  respect  for  the  protection  of  their 
persons  and  their  property  the  same  treatment  and  the  same 
rights  as  the  natives,  or  the  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  the 
most  favoured  nation. 


In  this  connection  Sir  Edward  Malet,  the  British 
Plenipotentiary  at  the  Conference,  clearly  pointed 
S^  out  that  "freedom  of  commerce  unchecked  by  rea- 
sonable control  would  degenerate  into  licence." 
Reasonable  control  is  only  another  name  for  State 
law  and  police  regulation.  The  Congo  Government 
maintains  that,  subject  to  its  internal  laws  and 
regulations  which  affect  its  own  and  foreign  subjects 
alike,  the  subjects  of  every  nation  are  free  to  enter 


Students  of  the  State  Technical  School,  New  Antwerp  (Bangala). 


Hospital,  Boma. 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     119 

its  territory  in  pursuit  of  legitimate  trade.  Apropos 
of  this  phase  of  the  subject  Baron  Descamps  says: 

The  power  of  the  State  in  this  connection  is  incontestable. 
That  power  is  derived  directly  from  the  primary  right  and 
duty  to  maintain  public  order  everywhere  and  under  all  cir- 
cumstances. Nobody  can  deny  the  State  the  right  of  tak- 
ing steps,  for  example,  for  the  preservation  of  public  safety. 
Government  cannot  be  carried  on  without  a  judicial  and  ad- 
ministrative police  system,  and  a  State  could  not  renounce 
that  prerogative  without  laying  itself  open  to  a  charge  of 
incapacity  in  its  primary  and  essential  functions.  Hence, 
such  a  renunciation  could  not  be  argued  from  mere  presump- 
tions or  inductions.  ' 

Amongst  the  innovations  attempted  by  the  Ber- 
lin Act  was  that  which  sought,  by  Article  IV.,  to 
abolish  all  import  and  transit  dues.     Little  -j-he 

serious  account  appears  to  have  been  taken  Free-Trade 
— so  far  as  the  Act  reveals — of  the  practical  Policy 
necessity  for  erecting  and  sustaining  works  of  public 
utility  to  commerce,  and  the  equity  of  imposing 
proper  charges  on  the  wares  upon  which  the  bene- 
fits of  such  works  were  bestowed.  The  absolute 
prohibition  of  import  duties  created  great  difificulties 
for  the  Free  State  which,  but  for  the  personal  munifi- 
cence of  its  Sovereign,  would  have  wrecked  a  liberal 
undertaking,  handicapped  and  fettered  by  the  fan- 
ciful legislation  of  the  Berlin  Conference, — "Mer- 
chandise imported  into  those  regions  shall  remain 
free  from  import  and  transit  dues."  Fortunately 
the  legislators  of  the  Berlin  Conference  were  not  to 
become  the  practical  governors  of  the  Congo  Free 

^New  Africa,  p.  68. 


I20  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

State,  else  they  might  have  realised  that  the  gravest 
body  may  enact  farce  and  commit  folly.  It  was  the 
experiment  of  a  new  principle  in  colonial  administra- 
tive economy  which  they  aimed  at,  but  there  is  a  vast 
difference  in  substance  between  a  mirage  and  a  moun- 
tain. That  there  were  misgivings  in  the  mind  of 
some  members  of  the  Conference  as  to  the  logic  of 
driving  traders  into  the  Congo,  on  the  one  hand, 
utterly  untaxed  for  the  support  of  the  Government 
and  the  security  it  afforded,  while  on  the  other  the 
State  was  charged  with  the  creation  of  public  works 
and  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order  without 
revenue,  is  manifested  by  that  final  clause  of  Article 
IV.,  which  provides  that  "the  Powers  reserve  to 
themselves  to  determine,  after  the  lapse  of  twenty 
years,  whether  this  freedom  of  import  shall  be  re- 
tained or  not."  In  this  case  the  Powers  did  not  wait 
twenty  years  to  revise  their  principle  of  free  trade. 
Five  3^ears  were  sufficient  to  reveal  its  inapplica- 
bility to  a  new  country,  and  the  Second  Brussels 
Conference,  assembled  in  1890,  made  of  the  free- 
trade  clause  of  1885  a  clause  allowing  on  merchandise 
other  than  spirituous  liquors  an  impost  not  exceed- 
ing ten  per  cent.  "It  would  never  do,"  said  Baron 
de  Courcel,  at  the  Conference,  "to  renew  the  colo- 
nial experience  gained  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
when  colonies  were  brought  to  ruin  by  those  who 
pretended  to  fix  in  Europe,  from  a  purely  metro- 
politan point  of  view,  their  financial  and  adminis- 
trative system."  The  experiment  of  prohibiting 
import  duties  proved,  as  already  indicated,  a  serious 
hindrance  to  the  economic  life  of  the  new  State. 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     121 

That  the  experiment  would  not,  however,  be  per- 
sisted in  by  the  Powers,  had  been  foreshadowed  by 
the  suggestion  of  Baron  Lambermont  at  the  ^  j^j^_ 
Conference  when  he  said:  "It  is  experi-  porary 
ence  which  will  then  inspire  the  interested  Experiment 
Powers  with  the  most  favourable  resolutions  for  the 
development  and  commercial  progress  in  their  pos- 
sessions." There  were,  therefore,  after  all,  men  of 
practical  political  foresight  at  the  Conference,  whose 
assent  to  so  radical  a  policy  of  free  trade  was  accorded 
for  the  purpose  of  the  moment  only,  and  while  the 
great  question  of  civilising  Central  African  tribes 
dominated  their  early  aims  even  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  correlated  questions  of  commerce.  Article 
III.  of  the  General  Act,  therefore,  provided  that: 
"Wares  of  whatever  origin,  imported  into  these  re- 
gions, under  whatsoever  flag,  by  sea  or  river,  or  over- 
land, shall  be  subject  to  no  other  taxes  than  such 
as  may  be  levied  as  fair  compensation  for  expendi- 
ture in  the  interest  of  trade,  and  which  for  this  reason 
must  be  equally  borne  by  the  subjects  themselves 
and  by  foreigners  of  all  nationalities."  The  reasons 
actuating  the  Berlin  Conference  not  to  fix  the  rate 
of  such  taxation  as  it  provided  for  at  the  Brussels 
Conference,  are  clearly  indicated  on  page  85  of  the 
protocols  to  the  General  Act,  from  which  the  follow- 
ing declaration  is  quoted: 

The  rate  of  the  taxes  of  compensation  is  not  fixed  in  any 
definite  manner.  The  support  of  foreign  capital  ought  to  be 
placed,  with  commercial  freedom,  amongst  the  most  useful 
aids  to  the  spirit  of  enterprise,  whether  it  has  reference  to  the 
execution  of  works  of  public  interest  or  whether  it  has  in  view 


122  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  development  of  the  cultivation  of  the  natural  products  of 
the  African  soil.  But  capital  only  goes,  in  general,  to  places 
where  the  risks  are  sufficiently  covered  by  the  chances  of 
profit.  The  Commission  has  therefore  thought  that  there 
would  result  more  disadvantages  than  advantages  from  bind- 
ing too  strictly,  by  restrictions  arranged  in  advance,  the  lib- 
erty' of  action  of  public  powers  or  of  concessions.  If  abuses 
should  arise,  if  the  taxes  threatened  to  attain  an  excessive 
rate,  the  cure  would  be  found  in  the  interest  of  the  authorities 
or  of  the  contractors,  seeing  that  commerce,  as  experience 
has  more  than  once  proved,  would  turn  away  from  establish- 
ments the  access  to,  or  use  of  which,  had  been  rendered  too 
burdensome. 

That  contribution  by  traders  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  State  under  a  system  of  taxation  and  poHce 
regulation  is  not  incompatible  with  commercial 
freedom  was  forcibly  reiterated  at  the  Conference 
by  Count  de  Launay  and,  of  course,  by  other  mem- 
bers who  at  all  dwelt  upon  a  principle  so  well  estab- 
lished. Treating  this  question  with  much  erudition, 
Baron  Descamps  cites  the  French  law  of  March  2, 
1 79 1,  relating  to  patents,  which,  he  says,  "gave  the 
most  emphatic  assent  of  modern  times  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  commercial  freedom.  The  very  clause  pro- 
claiming freedom  of  commerce  provided  for  licence 
dues!  Thus:  'Everybody  shall  be  free  to  carry  on 
any  business  he  chooses;  [sic]  but  he  must  first  ob- 
tain, and  pay  for,  a  licence,  and  submit  to  any  re- 
gulations of  police  that  may  be  made.'  "  ' 

Obviously  the  "freedom  of  commerce"  intended 
by  the  General  Act  of  the  Berlin  Conference  is  not 
the  open  door  with  the  key  thrown  away  and  <^haos 

^  New  Africa,  p.  67. 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     123 


prevailing  behind  it.  The  State  is  mistress  of  her 
domain.  She  is  alone  responsible  for  its  civil  order 
and  the  just  regulation  of  its  life,  whether  ^j^g  q 
social,  commercial,  or  political.  Her  atti-  Door  and 
tude  upon  all  fundamental  rules  of  civilised  Chaos 
government  has  two  facets:  the  one  toward  her 
subjects,  the  other  toward  the  society  of  nations 
which  surrounds  her.  She  must  conduct  her  affairs 
with  due  regard  for  those  broad  principles  of  national 
morality  which  civilised  communities  recognise  as  a 
lofty  standard  of  social  and  political  life.  Until  she 
prove  herself  incompetent  in  this  respect,  her  terri- 
tory cannot  become  the  subject  of  international 
partition  or  regulation  on  pretexts  of  humanitarian- 
ism  or  on  any  other,  nor  is  it  in  the  justice  of  nations 
or  of  men  to  undermine  the  force  of  her  authority  or 
to  enfeeble  the  integrity  of  her  Statehood  by  any 
agency  whatsoever. 

From  the  latest  report  of  the  Vice-Govemor- 
General  of  the  Congo  Free  State  are  quoted  below 
statements  which  shed  light  upon  the  be- 
lief held  by  the  Belgians  concerning  their  °^n\^gg! 
own  fiscal  policy,  and  the  attitude  they 
offer  to  the  criticisms  of  its  burly  neighbour.  Great 
Britain,  in  its  rule  of  the  Soudan  and  its  other 
colonial  possessions: 

In  the  region  of  commerce  the  Congo  State,  which  was  the 
first  to  inscribe  in  its  international  conventions  the  principles 
of  liberty,  has  not  failed,  no  matter  what  any  one  says  to  the 
contrary,  in  the  programme  which  was  drawn  up  in  1884, 
and  of  which,  as  has  recently  been  recalled,  Stanley  was  made 
the  spokesman.     The  regime  of  the  "open  door,"  which  has 


124.        Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

just  been  claimed  by  the  Liverpool  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
at  the  very  moment,  too,  when  purely  philanthropic  declara- 
tions were  being  heard  in  the  House  of  Commons,  is  that  also 
of  the  Congo  State ;  and  there  cannot  be  discovered  in  our 
territory  the  existence  of  monopolies  such  as  those  of  ivory 
and  rubber  which  the  Government  of  the  Soudan  has  created 
for  its  own  profit  in  some  parts  of  the  Soudan.' 

The  traders  of  all  nations  may  sell  on  the  Congo  the  objects 
of  their  commerce,  and  buy  the  natural  produce  from  the 
proprietors  of  the  soil;  no  limit,  no  hindrance  is  placed  on 
this  traffic,  and  that  is  really  freedom  of  trade.  That  this 
freedom  may  remain  complete  notwithstanding  the  existence 
of  the  domain  rights,  and  the  granting  of  concessions,  has 
been  proved  up  to  the  hilt,  and  to  declare,  as  has  been  done 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  that  trade  does  not  exist  on  the 
Congo  is  to  put  oneself  in  contradiction  with  the  law  and  the 
facts.  These  statements,  by  repetition,  end  by  being  con- 
sidered as  axioms,  and  it  is  not  realised  that  they  still  await 
proof.  The  regime  of  concessions,  besides,  has  not  been  es- 
tablished for  the  exclusive  advantage  or  benefit  of  the  Bel- 
gians ;  the  opening  was  given  to  foreign  initiative  and  capital 
without  distinction  to  become  interested  in  the  development 
of  the  country,  and  if,  by  a  want  of  confidence  that  the  event 
has  not  justified,  English  capital  was  withdrawn  from  some 
Congolese  undertakings,  the  prosperous  condition  of  which  is 
now  made  a  grievance,  it  does  not  follow  therefrom  that  those 
who  did  run  the  risk  inherent  in  enterprises  in  new  countries 
should  see  to-day  the  results  of  their  efforts  and  their  perse- 
verance assailed. 

It  is  to  the  astonishment,  not  to  say  to  the  general  indig- 
nation, of  the  handful  of  Europeans  who  are  working,  and 
undergoing  hardships  on  the  spot,  that  these  attempts  are 

^  Soudan  Gazette,  published  by  authority  of  the  Soudan  Government, 
No.  47,  Khartoum,  ist  May,  1903:  "It  is  notified  for  information  that 
the  following  articles  are  governmental  monopolies  in  the  following 
districts:  Rubber  and  gutta  percha,  in  the  whole  of  the  Soudan,  ex- 
cepting Kordofan.  Ivory,  in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  and  Fashoda.  .  .  . 
(Signed)  Reginald  Wingate,  Governor-General." 


Economic  Regime  of  the  Berlin  Act     125 

made  abroad  to  represent  them  all,  from  the  highest  place 
to  the  most  obscure  of  the  assistants,  as  associated  in  an 
odious  work  of  destruction  and  inhumanity.  The  duty  of 
protesting  against  this  legend  is  imposed  on  whoever  has  seen 
with  his  own  eyes  these  territories,  once  disinherited,  being 
opened  to  civilisation,  evangelisation,  and  progress;  popula- 
tions, formerly  troops  of  slaves,  reborn  to  confidence  and 
freedom;  the  rapid  economic  equipment,  the  railways  under 
exploitation  or  construction,  a  flotilla  which  covers  the  river 
and  its  affluents,  routes  which  open  up  the  most  distant 
regions,  telegraphic  and  telephonic  lines  to  the  Upper  River, 
cultivation  and  plantation  gradually  extending,  cattle  in- 
troduced into  every  district,  mission  establishments  opened 
in  all  parts,  vaccine  institutions,  and  services  of  medical, 
sanitary,  and  hygienic  orders.  Such  are  some  of  the  results 
of  what  has  been  called  the  system  of  the  State,  a  system 
which  was  inspired  before  everything  by  the  vows  of  the 
Berlin  and  Brussels  Conferences,  and  it  could  not  be  explained 
how  it  has  been  possible  for  the  State's  adversaries  to  cry  it 
down  if  it  were  not  known  that  their  customary  tactics  are  to 
lay  stress  on  the  inevitable  imperfections  of  a  work  of  that 
extent  still,  after  all,  in  the  stage  of  its  beginning.     .     .     . 

As  concerns  cotton,  which  before  the  Mahdist  invasion  was 
seemingly  cultivated  in  a  sufficiently  considerable  degree,  I 
hold  it  on  good  authority  that  in  Cairo  and  Lower  Egypt 
some  little  disquietude  is  being  shown  on  the  subject  of  the 
activity  displayed  by  the  Belgians  on  the  Upper  Nile,  and  that 
some  apprehension  is  felt  there  of  a  cotton  competition  in 
the  near  future. 


CHAPTER  X 

AN  APPEAL  TO  BELGIUM  TO  SUPPRESS  THE  SLAVE 

TRADE 

SLAVERY  is  as  ancient  as  war,  and  war  as  old 
as  human  nature.  Upon  this  premise  Vol- 
taire philosophised  when  his  thought  reverted 
to  the  early  inequity  of  human  life.  Christian  na- 
tions were  deep  in  the  slave  trade  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  A  black  cloud  of  human  flesh,  aggregating 
sixteen  million  souls,  was  imported  into  America 
upon  Western  slave  dhows  in  three  centuries,  ex- 
clusive of  the  twenty -odd  million  Negroes  who 
perished  in  transit.  More  atrocious  than  the  pes- 
tilential slave  dhow  was  the  slaughter  of  blacks  by 
the  slave-raider,  that  fiend  incarnate  who  until  a 
few  years  ago  carried  on  his  inhuman  traffic  under 
the  very  gaze  of  Christian  Europe.  Indeed,  Europe 
herself  was  a  slave-dealer  for  centuries.  Some  of 
her  Governments  sanctioned  it  in  terms  unspeakably 
callous.  There  was  little  pity  and  less  mercy  in 
officially  lading  "tons  of  niggers"  for  American 
ports. 

Late  in  the  eighteenth  century,  Great  Britain  had 
championed  the  cause  of  humanity  and  sought  a 
remedy  for  the  horrible  conditions  which  slavery 
entailed.     The  movement  which,  assuming  definite 

126 


--?.•"«»»*.. 


Bridge  Made  of  Cement,  Boma. 


An  Appeal  to  Belgium  127 

shape  about  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, had  found  able  and  eloquent  advocacy 
in  such  men  as  Granville  Sharpe,  Clarkson,  Wilber- 
force,  and  William  Pitt.  These  staunch  humani- 
tarians, after  what  seemed  the  hopeless  labour  of 
many  years,  finally  triumphed  so  far  as  to  impel 
the  Vienna  Congress  of  18 15  and  the  Verona  Con- 
gress of  1822  to  forbid  any  civilised  nation  to  carry 
on  the  slave  trade. 

The  next  steps,  also  furthered  by  the  British 
Government,  sought  to  abolish  the  legal  status  of 
slavery  and  to  suppress  slave  markets  and  slave 
dhows.  The  Western  world  began  to  awaken  to  a 
sense  of  duty.  In  all  directions  the  noble  initiative 
taken  by  Great  Britain  found  earnest  agency.  The 
Christian  nations,  now  thoroughly  aroused  to  the 
iniquity  of  the  slave  trade,  exchanged  treaties  in 
1 84 1,  the  operation  of  which  was  designed  to  clear 
the  ocean  of  slave  transports.  When  shut  out  of 
the  American  market,  it  was  believed  that  the  in- 
famous slave  traffic  would  subside.  But  the  scourge 
continued  almost  unabated.  Driven  out  of  the 
West,  it  flourished  the  more  in  the  East,  where 
large  markets  still  remained  open.  The  northern 
and  eastern  coasts  of  Africa  continued  to  supply 
the  Oriental  markets,  the  Soudan,  Upper  Nile, 
and  Congo  Basin  being  the  slave -hunter's  Elysium. 
The  Sultans  of  the  Soudan,  whose  avarice  knew  no 
limit,  strove  in  the  cruellest  manner  to  increase 
their  spoil  in  this  man-hunting  chase.  Khartoum 
slavers  pressed  into  the  Bhar-el-Ghazal,  while  the 
Arabs  from  Zanzibar  devastated  the  Manyema  and 


128  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Tanganyika  regions.  West-coast  raiders  had  even 
penetrated  as  far  inland  as  the  Upper  Kassai,  and 
created  that  wretched  condition  of  native  hfe  in  the 
interior  of  the  Congo  Basin  which  impressed  Living- 
stone, Stanley,  Kirk,  Bartle  Frere,  Nachtigal,  Wiss- 
mann,  Serpa  Pinto,  Massaia,  and  that  great  exemplar 
of  Christianising  work,  Cardinal  Lavigerie. 

In  1876,  nearly  ten  years  before  the  Berlin  Con- 
ference, the  King  of  the  Belgians  called  upon  Europe 
to  join  in  a  concerted  movement  to  suppress  the 
slave  traffic  in  Central  Africa.  In  the  same  year  the 
British  Government  published  its  Report  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Fugitive  Slaves.  The  words  of  Prince 
Bismarck  at  the  Berlin  Conference  of  1885  were  an 
intimation  of  the  legislation  which  was  thereafter 
effected  by  clauses  6  and  9  of  the  General  Act.  By 
clause  6,  the  Powers  agreed  "to  watch  over  the 
preservation  of  the  native  tribes  and  to  care  for  the 
improvement  of  the  conditions  of  their  moral  and 
material  well-being,  and  to  help  in  suppressing 
slavery  and  especially  the  slave  trade."  Baron 
Lambermont  stated  the  distinction  between  slavery 
and  the  slave  trade:  "The  slave  trade,"  said  the 
Baron,  "has  another  character;  it  is  the  very  denial 
of  every  law,  of  all  social  order.  Man-hunting  con- 
stitutes a  crime  of  high  treason  againt  humanity. 
It  ought  to  be  repressed  wherever  it  can  be  reached, 
on  land  as  well  as  by  sea." 

It  was  with  characteristic  activity  that  the  Sover- 
eign of  the  Congo  Free  State  had  taken  the  initiative 
in  making  the  suppression  of  the  slave  traffic  an 
essential  aim  in  the  civilisation  of  an  African  State 


An  Appeal  to  Belgium  129 

which  had  not  only  been  the  source  of  slave  supply 
for  many  markets,  but  whose  territory  touched 
closely  upon  a  number  of  slave-dealing  countries. 
In  the  eighteenth  century,  the  nations  of  Etu-ope 
had  partitioned  the  coast  of  Africa  to  the  French 
between  Senegal  and  Gambia,  to  the  British  on 
the  Gold  and  Ivory  coasts,  and  to  the  Portuguese  in 
the  Angola  and  Benguela  regions.  The  object  of 
this  territorial  apportionment  was  to  facilitate  the 
slave  trade  and  render  it  more  profitable!  Now, 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  these  same  Governments 
were  dividing  African  territory  with  the  much  loftier 
purpose  of  extirpating  the  slave  trade.  The  march 
of  a  hundred  years  had  raised  European  morality 
and  justified  the  Christian  influence  of  the  age. 

Undaunted  by  the  material  difficulty  of  realising 
the  excellent  theories  which  European  nations  were  j 
now  offering  to  carry  out  in  the  very  nest  of  the 
slave  trade,  the  Congo  Free  State  formally  tackled  the 
problem  by  promulgating  three  decrees  in  Novem- 
ber, 1888.  The  first  provided  practical  means  for 
suppressing  the  slave  trade,  amongst  which  were 
measures  prohibiting  trade  in  firearms,  gunpowder, 
and  explosives;  the  second,  seeking  to  protect  and 
improve  the  natives,  dealt  with  contracts  of  service 
between  natives  and  foreigners,  and  enacted  laws 
which  guaranteed  the  former  from  imposition.  The 
third  decree  established  a  body  of  volunteer  police  // 
to  suppress  crimes  and  offences  against  public  order 
and  individual  liberty^;  Then  followed  the  organi- 
sation of  the  Belgian  Anti-Slavery  Society  which, 
creating  a  special  volunteer  corps,  operated  against 


I30  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  slave-raiders  in  the  Tanganyika  district.  Refer- 
ence has  elsewhere  been  made  to  the  vigorous  man- 
ner in  which  these  and  similar  decrees  were  enforced, 
and  how  the  slave-raider  was  driven  from  one  lair 
to  another,  until,  almost  unaided  and  alone,  the  in- 
domitable energy  of  Belgian  officers  succeeded  in 
uprooting  the  institution  of  slave  traffic  and  opening 
an  immense  river  basin  to  the  pursuits  of  civilisation. 

A  great  wave  of  sympathy  for  all  enslaved  races 
had  spread  throughout  the  civilised  world.  Nations 
heretofore  indifferent  to  the  weal  of  the  black  man 
in  the  brutal  toils  of  the  slave-raider,  were  actuated 
by  a  desire  to  co-operate  with  the  practical  forces 
already  at  work  for  emancipating  the  Dark  Conti- 
nent. All  religions  combined  in  the  motherhood  of 
the  human  race  and,  now  thoroughly  alive  to  the 
principle  of  human  liberty,  lent  their  support  to  the 
great  cause  of  African  civilisation.  The  movement, 
now  become  general  throughout  Europe,  gained  im- 
petus in  1888  by  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Brazil. 
In  that  year.  Pope  Leo  XIII.  reiterated  the  appeal 
made  by  Leopold  II.  in  1876,  and  besought  all  na- 
tions to  unite  in  purging  the  page  of  history  of  a 
further  record  of  the  abominable  crime  of  slave- 
hunting.  In  addressing  that  wonderful  engine  of 
missionary  work,  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  His  Holiness 
pointed  out  the  misery  of  "that  disinherited  land," 
and  urged  all  who  are  moved  by  human  impulse 
to  devote  their  lives  to  "this  sublime  work  of  re- 
demption." 

The  self-sacrificing  work  which  Cardinal  Lavi- 
gerie has  done  for  the  salvation  of  Africa  will  for  ever 


Oh 

H 


An  Appeal  to  Belgium  131 

be  a  white  monument  in  a  black  wilderness.  It  was 
his  appeal  to  the  peoples  of  the  Christian  world 
which  witnessed  the  first  organised  work  of  Leopold 
II.,  and  it  is  this  prelate's  indefatigable  industry, 
and  his  love  for  these  savage  souls  of  Africa,  which 
has  largely  carried  that  work  to  its  present  fruition. 
The  world-wide  adhesion  to  the  cause  of  Christian- 
ising the  Dark  Continent  took  diplomatic  shape  soon 
after  a  meeting  held  in  London  on  July  31,  1888,  at 
which  Lord  Granville  presided.  On  motion  of  Car- 
dinal Manning,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted : 

The  time  has  now  fully  arrived  when  the  several  nations  of 
Europe  who,  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  in  1815,  and  again  at 
the  Conference  of  Verona,  in  1822,  issued  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions strongly  denouncing  the  slave  trade,  should  take  the 
needful  steps  for  giving  them  a  full  and  practical  effect.  And, 
inasmuch  as  the  Arab  marauders  (whose  murderous  devasta- 
tions are  now  depopulating  Africa)  are  subject  to  no  law,  and 
under  no  responsible  rule,  it  devolves  on  the  Powers  of  Europe 
to  secure  their  suppression  throughout  all  territories  over 
which  they  have  any  control.  This  meeting  would,  therefore, 
urge  upon  Her  Majesty's  Govermnent,  in  concert  with  those 
Powers  who  now  claim  either  territorial  possession  or  terri- 
torial influence  in  Africa,  to  adopt  such  measures  as  shall 
secure  the  extinction  of  the  devastating  slave  trade  which  is 
now  carried  on  by  those  enemies  of  the  human  race.' 

On  October  27th,  an  anti-slavery  convention  was 
held  at  Cologne,  at  which  the  following  resolutions 
were  passed  and  sent  to  the  Reichstag: 

I — The  suppression  of  slave-hunting  with  its  attendant 
horrors,  devolves  upon  Christian  States  and  constitutes  the 
primary  condition  of  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade. 

^  Times,  London,  August  i,  1888. 


132  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

2 — While  the  Congo  Conference  obhges  all  the  Signatory 
Powers  to  help  in  the  suppression  of  slavery  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  lot  of  the  natives,  at  the  same  time  the  Congo 
State,  Portugal,  Great  Britain,  and  Germany,  as  being  directly 
threatened  by  Arab  slave-traders,  are  expected  to  take  the 
initiative  in,  and  to  bring  to  a  successful  issue,  the  struggle 
against  the  slave  trade. 

3t— The  meeting  expresses  the  conviction  that  the  honour 
of  the  German  flag  and  German  interests,  which  have  been 
violated  by  Arab  slave-traders  in  East  Africa,  will  be  avenged 
by  the  Imperial  Government. 

4 — It  also  expresses  the  hope  that  the  Reichstag  will  sup- 
port these  resolutions,  as  a  proof  of  tlie  perfect  agreement  of 
the  German  nation  without  distinction  of  party  or  creed. 

On  November  13,  the  Cabinets  of  BerHn,  London 
and  Lisbon  had  agreed  upon  coercive  measures 
against  slave-traders  on  the  East  Coast  of  Africa. 
Meantime,  on  September  17,  1888,  the  British  Gov- 
ernment had  appealed,  through  the  Belgian  Foreign 
Office,  to  King  Leopold  to  take  the  initiative  in 
assembling  a  Conference  at  Brussels  to  consider  the 
subject.  In  conveying  this  invitation  to  the  King 
of  the  Belgians,  the  British  Minister  to  the  Belgian 
Court  stated  that : 

The  change  which  has  occurred  in  the  political  condition  of 
the  African  Coast  to-day  calls  for  common  action  on  the  part 
of  the  Powers  responsible  for  the  control  of  that  Coast.  That 
action  should  tend  to  close  all  foreign  slave -markets,  and 
should  also  result  in  putting  down  slave-hunting  in  the 
interior. 

The  great  work  undertaken  by  the  King  of  the  Belgians, 
in  the  constitution  of  the  Congo  State,  and  the  lively  interest 
taken  by  His  Majesty  in  all  questions  affecting  the  welfare  of 
the  African  races,  lead  Her  Majesty's  Government  to  hope 


o 


An  Appeal  to  Belgium  i33 

that  Belgium  will  be  disposed  to  take  the  initiative  in  inviting 
the  Powers  to  meet  in  Conference  at  Brussels,  in  order  to 
consider  the  best  means  of  attaining  the  gradual  suppression 
of  the  slave  trade  on  the  Continent  of  Africa  and  the  immediate 
closing  of  all  the  outside  markets  which  the  slave  trade  daily 
continues  to  supply. 

On  August  24,  1889,  King  Leopold  deferred  to  this 
wish  and  called  a  Conference  of  the  Powers  for 
November  18,  1889,  to  determine  upon  a  course  of 
action  for  the  gradual  suppression  of  slave-hunting 
on  the  African  Continent  and  the  immediate  closing 
of  all  markets  supplied  from  that  source,  and  "to 
put  an  end  to  the  crimes  and  devastation  wrought 
by  the  slave  trade,  and  effectively  to  protect  the 
native  populations  in  Africa." 

Thus,  after  thirteen  years  of  arduous  labour,  and 
the  vicissitudes  which  attend  the  progressive  pioneer 
in  savage  lands,  where  the  mission  and  the  plough 
follow  the  white  man's  trail,  the  Belgians  were  again 
called  upon  to  lead  in  a  war  against  the  most  degrad- 
ing of  human  conditions. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  SECOND  BRUSSELS  CONFERENCE 

THE  zealous  labours  of  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  Arch- 
bishop of  Algiers,  who  had  founded  the  Mis- 
sion of  the  White  Fathers  in  1878  to  convert 
the  Soudan  and  the  Congo  regions  to  Christianity, 
had  always  been  generously  supported  by  the  per- 
sonal munificence  of  King  Leopold.  The 
Cardinal  rescript  issued  to  this  devoted  and  untiring 
apostle  by  Pope  Leo  XHL  had  inaugurated 
endeavours  on  behalf  of  civilisation  unexcelled  in 
any  colony  in  the  world.  King  Leopold's  earnest 
and  generous  encouragement  of  this  evangelistic 
work  equalled  the  broad-minded  and  hopeful  man- 
ner in  which  he  supported  Stanley  and  others  in 
their  early  expeditions  through  the  unknown  forests 
of  the  Congo.  There  was,  therefore,  a  sympathetic 
tie  between  His  Holiness,  the  King,  and  the  Cardinal 
in  the  world's  task  in  Congoland. 

Early  in  1888  Cardinal  Lavigerie  visited  Belgium, 
and,  being  convinced  by  his  long  African  experience 
The  Anti-  ^^  ^^^  ncccssity  f or  an  organised  .  anti- 
siavery  slavery  crusade,  opened  a  campaign  in  the 
Crusade.  Brussels  Cathedral  which,  by  its  popular 
interest,  carried  him  to  many  parts  of  Europe.  The 
eloquence  of  this  truly  great  prelate  was  born   of 

134 


Postmaster's  House,  Suruango,  1904. 


House  of  Vice-Governor-General,  Stanleyville. 


The  Second  Brussels  Conference       135 

that  deep  sympathy  for  the  African  black  derived 
from  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the  debasing  con- 
ditions still  prevalent  in  those  parts  of  the  Congo 
Basin  where,  for  many  practical  reasons,  the  Bel- 
gians had  not  penetrated  with  their  work  and  in- 
fluence. The  Cardinal  exhorted  the  Belgians,  first 
of  all,  to  support  and  emulate  their  King,  who,  he 
said,  "would  open  before  you  a  country  seventy 
times  as  large  as  your  own — an  immense  field  for  the 
spread  of  your  religion  and  for  charity.  .  .  .  You 
have  not  given  to  the  struggle  with  barbarism  all 
the  assistance  that  was  incumbent  upon  you." 

To  the  avowed  support  given  by  his  Majesty  to  the 
movement  which  the  Cardinal's  numerous  sermons 
inspired,  may  largely  be  attributed  the  Belgian 
campaigns  against  the  Arab  slave -raiders  which 
the  Brussels  Conference  of  the  following  year  urged 
upon  the  interested  Powers. 

The  hundred  admirable  articles  of  the  General 
Act  of  the  Conference  do  not  all  concern  the  reader. 
Their  general  purpose,  already  indicated  in  a  previ- 
ous chapter,  was  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade, 
the  protection  of  the  natives,  and  the  provision  of 
revenue  from  import  duties  wherewith  to  maintain 
a  practical  executive  to  accomplish  both  aims. 

The  Conference  convened  on  November  18,  1889, 
and  held  the  last  of  its  thirty-three  sessions  on  the 
July  2,  1890.  The  King  of  the  Belgians  had  again 
welcomed  the  representatives  of  all  the  Powers 
party  to  the  Berlin  Act.  Persia,  having  mean- 
time adhered  to  that  Act,  was  also  represented. 
The  Prince  dc  Chimay,  Belgian  Minister  for  Foreign 


1 36  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Affairs,  presided  at  the  formal  opening  of  the  Con- 
ference. At  its  first  session  Baron  Lamberniont 
was  unanimously  elected  to  preside  over  its  deliber- 
ations. His  able  associate  at  Berlin,  M.  Emile 
Banning,  also  represented  Belgium  at  this  Confer- 
ence, while  Baron  Van  Eetvelde,  for  many  years 
devoted  to  its  moral  and  material  development, 
represented  the  Congo  Free  State.  Chief  among  other 
distinguished  representatives  were  Count  von  Alven- 
sleben  for  Germany,  M.  Bouree  for  France,  Lord 
Vivian  and  Sir  John  Kirk  for  Great  Britain,  Mr.  Ter- 
rell, Minister  at  Brussels,  for  the  United  States,  and 
Prince  Ourroussof  and  Professor  Martens  for  Russia. 

Foremost  in  the  work  of  framing  a  proposed  Act, 
under  which  the  Congo  Free  State  inherited  great 
responsibility  and  a  tremendous  task,  were  the  Bel- 
gian representatives.  The  other  interested  Powers 
pledged  themselves  to  join,  each  in  its  own  territory, 
in  the  anti-slavery  campaign  which  the  Act  pre- 
scribed. Briefly  stated,  the  signatories  to  the  Gen- 
eral Act  of  this  Conference  declared  that  they  were 
"animated  by  the  firm  intention  of  putting  an  end 
to  the  crimes  and  devastation  engendered  by  the 
traffic  in  African  slaves,  of  protecting  effectually  the 
aboriginal  populations  of  Africa,  and  of  insuring 
for  that  vast  continent  the  benefits  of  peace  and 
civilisation." 

The  first  article,  relating  to  effective  methods  of 
The  suppressing  slave -raiding  in  the  Congo  Ba- 

Generai       sin,  was  divided  into  seven  sections: 

Act. 

The  first  provided  for  the  progressive  organisation  of  ad- 


The  Second  Brussels  Conference        137 

ministrative,  judicial,  religious,  and  military  services  —  in 
fact,  the  whole  machinery  of  government.  The  second  rem- 
edy was  to  be  the  gradual  establishment  in  the  interior  of 
strong  protective  and  repressive  stations.  The  third  clause 
provided  for  the  construction  of  roads  and  railroads,  so  that 
human  porterage  might  be  ended.  The  fourth,  for  the  plac- 
ing of  steamers  on  the  lakes  and  inland  waters.  The  fifth, 
for  the  laying  down  of  telegraph  lines.  And  the  sixth,  for 
the  organisation  of  expeditions  by  movable  columns.  While 
these  clauses  were  of  an  active  character,  the  seventh  came 
under  the  head  of  prohibition.  It  provided  for  restriction  in 
tlie  import  of  firearms,  and  especially  of  modern  rifles  and 
ammunition,  within  the  whole  extent  of  the  territory  affected 
by  the  slave  trade.  The  General  Act  only  provided  for  the 
restriction  in  the  import  of  firearms;  but  the  King,  in  the 
administrative  decree,  applying  its  provisions  to  the  Congo 
State,  interdicted  the  importation,  traffic,  and  transport  of 
all  rifles,  as  well  as  of  powder,  bullets,  and  cartridges.  The 
same  decree  imposed  severe  penalties  on  those  who  in  any 
way  violated  these  regulations. 

The  second  article  of  the  Act  laid  down  that  "the  stations 
and  the  interior  cruisers  shall  have  for  their  object  the  pre- 
vention of  the  capture  of  slaves,  and  the  interception  of  the 
routes  of  transit.  They  shall  extend  their  efficacious  pro- 
tection over  all  the  dependent  populations  within  the  range 
of  their  authority,  by  prohibiting  intestine  war,  and  by  in- 
itiating them  into  agricultural  labour.  They  will  assist  com- 
merce, verifying  labour  contracts;  they  will  aid  the  missions, 
and  they  will  organise  a  sanitary  service."  ^ 

The  second  article,  recognising  the  duty  of  the 
Powers  to  prevent  slave -raiding  in  the  territory 
under  their  control,  adopted,  amongst  others,  the 
following  prescription : 

To  support  and,  if  necessary,  to  serve  as  a  refuge  for  the 
native  populations;    to  place  those  under  their  sovereignty 
'  Boulger,  The  Congo  State,  1898. 


1 38  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

in  a  position  to  co-operate  for  their  own  defence ;  to  dimin- 
ish intertribal  wars  by  means  of  arbitration;  to  initiate  the 
natives  in  agricultural  pursuits  and  industrial  arts,  so  as  to 
increase  their  welfare;  to  raise  them  by  civilisation  and 
bring  about  the  extinction  of  barbarous  customs,  such  as 
cannibalism  and  human  sacrifices;  and,  in  giving  aid  to  com- 
mercial enterprises,  to  watch  over  their  legality,  controlling 
especially  the  contracts  for  service  entered  into  with  natives. 

The  third  and  fourth  articles  contained  the  pledge 
of  all  the  interested  Powers  to  assist  in  enforcing 
these  commendable  provisions  for  the  betterment 
of  the  black  races  in  Africa.  The  succeeding  apathy 
of  the  Powers  in  no  wise  abated  the  energy  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  in  its  heroic  effort  to  realise  for 
civilisation  the  views  which  Belgian  statesmen  had 
largely  inspired  at  the  Conference.  The  Belgian 
campaigns  against  the  Arabs,  briefly  narrated  in 
succeeding  chapters,  were  only  one  phase  of  those 
multiform  difficulties  which  beset  the  pioneer  in 
savage  lands  where  the  heralds  of  civilisation  find 
it  necessary  to  suppress  the  old  and  impose  a  new 
order  of  life  upon  untutored  human  beings. 

The  second  chapter  referred,  amongst  other  things, 
to  caravan  routes,  the  transport  of  slaves  by  land. 
Alcohol  ^^^  ^o  providing  means  of  livelihood  and 
and  education  for  liberated  slaves.     The  sixth 

CivUisation,  Qj^^pter  enumerated  the  measures  to  be 
taken  to  restrict  the  trade  in  spirituous  liquors. 
The  six  articles  composing  this  chapter  forbid  the 
importation  of  distilled  drinks  ' '  in  the  regions  where 
they  have  not  yet  penetrated,"  and  "each  Power 
will  determine  for  itself  the  limit  of  this  zone  within 
its  own  pOvSsessions."      It  is    in  reference  to  these 


3 


The  Second  Brussels  Conference       139 

infirm  clauses,  as  elastic  as  Congo  rubber,  that  the 
Free  State  has  fulfilled  promise  with  performance 
that  puts  her  neighbours  to  shame.  Each  year  of 
Belgian  rule  in  the  Congo  has  been  marked  by  a 
contraction  of  the  area  in  which  alcoholic  liquors 
are  legitimate  traffic  even  in  a  restricted  form.  To- 
day spirituous  liquors  are  practically  excluded  from 
more  than  four-fifths  of  the  entire  State.  The 
Sovereign  of  the  Congo  Free  State  does  not  respect 
that  colonising  enthusiasm  which  is  founded  on  de- 
leterious Scotch  whiskey,  Holland  gin,  and  Jamaica 
rum.  He  has,  therefore,  carried  out  the  spirit  as 
well  as  the  letter  of  the  liquor  clauses  in  the  Brussels 
Act,  and  lost  revenue  for  the  State  from  a  source 
which,  to  a  large  degree,  supports  the  budgets  of 
neighbouring  colonies. 

In  the  eighth  article  it  is  declared  that 

the  experience  of  all  nations  who  have  intercourse  with 
Africa  has  shown  the  pernicious  and  preponderating  part 
played  by  firearms  in  slave  trade  operations  as  well  as  in 
intertribal  wars,  and  has  clearly  proved  that  the  preservation 
of  the  African  populations  is  a  radical  impossibility  unless 
restrictive  measures  against  the  trade  in  firearms  and  am- 
munition are  established. 

It  was,  therefore,  stipulated  that  in  those  parts 
of  Africa  between  the  twentieth  parallel  of  north 
latitude  and  the  twenty-second  parallel  of  south 
latitude  the  importation  of  firearms,  and  especially 
of  rifles  and  weapons  of  precision,  powder,  balls,  and 
cartridges,  should  be  greatly  restricted,  and  as  far 
as  possible  prohibited.  The  only  exceptions  in  later 
articles  to  this  prescription  were  made  in  favour  ofl 


y 


140  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

f '  measures  directly  by  governments  for  arming  of  a 
force  puhlique  and  the  organisation  of  their  defence." 

To  carry  out  the  onerous  duties  imposed  by  the 
Brussels  Act  upon  all  the  interested  Powers  re- 
Attitude  quired  more  than  a  Conference  and  its 
of  the  lofty  ideals  and  appropriate  resolutions. 
Powers.  -gy  ^j^g  Berlin  Act  import  duties  had  been 
prohibited  in  the  Congo  Basin  only  as  an  experi- 
ment. The  attitude  of  the  Powers  towards  this 
question  was  now  more  enlightened  and  more  reason- 
able. Experience,  and  admiration  for  King  Leo- 
pold's rapid  acheivements  in  the  development  of 
the  new  State,  combined,  in  the  face  of  the  slave - 
raiding  enemy,  to  predispose  the  representatives  of 
the  Powers  to  a  rational  view  of  the  practical  neces- 
sities of  governments  which  were  called  upon  to 
establish  order  and  a  civil  community  upon  the 
trail  of  the  murderous  slave-chaser. 

At  the  thirteenth  session  of  the  Conference,  held 
on  May  10,  1890,  it  was  proposed  that  the  stipula- 
tion of  the  Berlin  Conference  prohibiting 
Duties.  ^11  import  duties  for  twenty  years  should 
be  withdrawn,  and  that  the  "assenting 
Powers  having  possessions  or  protectorates  in  the 
Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo  shall  be  at  liberty, 
so  far  as  authority  to  this  end  is  required,  to  estab- 
lish duties  on  imported  goods,  the  scale  of  which 
shall  not  exceed  a  rate  equivalent  to  ten  per  cent. 
ad  valorem  at  the  port  of  entry,  always  excepting 
spirituous  liquors."  Applying  especially  to  spirit- 
uous liquors  are  the  provisions  of  articles  90  to  95 
of  the  General  Act. 


The  Second  Brussels  Conference        141 

In  supporting  this  measure,  Baron  Lambermont 
said: 

Not  only  has  geographical  acquaintance  with  the  Congo 
Basin  revealed  the  wealth  of  the  vast  regions  it  comprises, 
but  European  commerce,  which  was  blocked  at  a  short  dis- 
tance from  the  coast,  has  penetrated  the  heart  of  Africa,  in 
countries  hitherto  utterly  unknown.  Civilisation,  in  divers 
forms,  has  made  no  less  progress,  and  has  been  permanently 
established  in  the  very  centre  of  Africa.  The  rapidity  with 
which  this  transformation  has  been  accomplished  would  seem 
to  make  it  a  duty  to  hasten  the  revision  of  the  free-trade  rule 
temporarily  laid  down  by  the  Berlin  General  Act.  The  pro- 
tection due  to  commerce  and  missions,  the  establishment  of 
systematic  justice,  the  opening  up  of  easier  means  of  com- 
munication with  the  interior  of  the  continent,  the  organisa- 
tion of  public  services  as  auxiliaries  to  private  enterprises, 
require  financial  resources  which  it  is  reasonable  to  obtain, 
by  means  of  imposts,  from  those  who  profit  by  the  new  order 
of  things.  While  in  most  of  the  African  colonies  tariffs  are 
among  the  principal  sources  of  revenue,  the  countries  situated 
in  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo  alone  are  deprived 
of  the  right  of  levying  customs  duties;  and  yet  these  are  the 
countries  that  find  themselves  at  the  front  in  the  crusade 
against  the  slave  trade!  The  resolutions  of  the  Brussels  Con- 
ference, in  imposing  on  them  new  tasks,  will  also  increase  the 
expenses  necessary  for  the  carrying  out  of  their  civilising 
mission.  The  legitimacy  of  import  duties  destined  to  meet 
these  expenses  cannot  be  denied. 

In  the  debate  which  naturally  ensued  upon  such 
an  important  measure,  Baron  Gericke  d'Herwijnen, 
representing  Holland,  which  has  a  large  spirit 
trade  along  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  opposed  views 
for  a  time  unfavourable  to  the  adoption  of  this 
supplementary  Declaration  '    to   the   General   Act. 

'See  Appendix  for  full  text. 


142  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Notwithstanding  his  views,  the  Dutch  representa- 
tive gracefully  alluded  to  ' '  the  well-merited  homage 
it  [Holland]  had  rendered  to  the  work  of  the  King 
of  the  Belgians  from  its  very  commencement." 

On  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  Lord  Vivian  sup- 
ported the  proposition  in  words  which  should  sear 
the  few  unkindly,  astigmatic  eyes  of  those  who  re- 
gard King  Leopold's  rule  in  Africa  with  splenetic  gaze 
and  caterwauling.  His  lordship  spoke  aptly  when 
he  said: 

As  to  the  question  whether  this  modification  is  opportune, 
the  fact  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  that  the  Berlin  Conference 
never  intended  to  fix  unalterably  the  economic  system  of 
the  Free  State,  which,  as  was  already  then  foreseen,  would 
undergo  radical  modifications  under  the  influence  of  progress, 
nor  to  establish  for  an  indefinite  period  regulations  which 
may  hinder,  check,  and  even  arrest  its  development.  Pro- 
vision was  wisely  made  for  the  probability  of  future  changes, 
which  would  require  a  certain  latitude  in  economic  matters 
in  order  to  secure  their  easy  realisation. 

The  moment  has  now  come  when  the  marvellous  progress 
made  by  the  infant  State  is  creating  fresh  needs,  when  it 
would  be  only  in  accordance  with  wisdom  and  foresight  to 
revise  an  economic  system  primarily  adapted  to  a  creative 
and  transitional  period. 

Can  we  blame  the  infant  State  for  a  progress  which,  in  its 
rapidity,  has  surpassed  the  most  optimistic  forecasts?  Can  we 
hinder  and  arrest  this  progress  in  refusing  Iter  the  m,eans  neces- 
sary for  her  development?  Can  we  condemn  the  Sovereign  who 
has  already  made  sucJi  great  sacrifices  to  support  for  an  in- 
definite period  a  burden  which  daily  becomes  heavier,  and  at 
the  same  time  impose  upon  him  new  and  Jieavy  expenses  neces- 
sitated by  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade? 

We  are  convinced  that  there  will  be  but  one  answer  to  these 
questions. 


wBefm^^^MijSm 


Pi 


The  Second  Brussels  Conference        143 

Following  the  British  representative  in  support  of 
the  proposal,  Count  von  Alvensleben,  the  German 
Minister,  expressed  himself  as  follows : 

The  Imperial  Government  will  be  glad  to  have  such  an 
opportunity  of  showing  its  sentiments  of  sympathy  for  the 
Congo  Free  State,  which,  under  the  wise  direction  of  its 
august  Sovereign,  has  given  such  striking  proofs  of  vitality. 

The  German  Government  will  willingly  lend  its  help  in 
placing  the  Congo  Free  State  in  a  position  to  acquire  the 
means  which  may  seem  necessary  to  assist  its  development 
and  to  enable  it  to  continue  its  valuable  services  to  the  cause 
of  civilisation  and  humanity. 

Indeed,  the  expressions  of  appreciation  of  the  Bel- 
gian work  in  the  Congo  were  unanimous  and  en- 
thusiastic. The  Declaration  was  adopted,  prance  and 
and  became  part  of  the  General  Act  of  the  the  Slave 
Brussels  Conference  by  the  ratification  of  Trade, 
all  the  Powers — the  Dutch  Chambers  sanctioning 
the  ratification  on  the  intervention  of  the  Queen 
Regent,  mother  of  the  present  Queen,  Wilhelmina. 
In  giving  her  adhesion  France  did  so  with  the  re- 
servation that  she  ' '  would  not  recognise  the  articles 
relating  to  the  zone  of  maritime  search,  jurispru- 
dence, arrest,  seizure,  and  condemnation  of  sus- 
pected ships."  This  has  always  been  regarded  as  a 
flaw  in  the  effort  of  the  Powers  to  suppress  the  slave 
traffic  with  unity  of  force  and  aim.  France's  re- 
markable reservation  has  had  the  effect  of  affording 
to  slave -dealers  the  only  existing  protection  of  a 
civilised  Government  on  the  East  African  Coast. 
The  motive  for  this  is  revealed  in  the  fact  that  slave - 
dealers  are  still  employed  in  the  French  possessions 


144  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

of  the  Indian  Ocean."  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
repubhcan  France  should  stand  out  from  that  soHd 
phalanx  of  the  Powers  by  which  alone  the  abomin- 
able institution  of  slavery  can  be  stricken  from  the 
calendar  of  modem  crime. 

'  Boulger. 


Baluba  Chiefs. 


Return  from  the  Hunt  at  Bumba  (Bangala). 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  CONGO  BEQUEATHED  TO  BELGIUM 

THE  Declaration  supplemental  to  the  General 
Act  of  the  Brussels  Conference,  referred  to 
in  the  previous  chapter,  assured  an  income 
to  the  Congo  Free  State,  which,  however  inadequate 
for  its  needs  at  that  time,  served,  in  a  degree,  to  clear 
its  future  of  the  doubt  which  had  caused  Belgium, 
as  a  nation,  to  shrink  from  incurring  financial  re- 
sponsibility in  support  of  it.  The  cost  of  the  early 
undertakings,  from  the  day  in  1876  when  Stanley 
took  leave  of  King  Leopold  in  Brussels  and  set  out 
upon  his  expedition  up  the  Congo  River,  and  the  ex- 
penses of  the  entire  enterprise,  including  those  of 
the  International  African  Association,  had  been 
borne  by  the  King  and  his  immediate  adherents. 
The  amounts  so  expended  each  year  now  aggregated 
a  sum  approximating  100,000,000  francs.  On  29th 
April,  1887,  the  Belgian  nation  had  authorised  the 
Congo  State  to  raise  a  loan  of  150,000,000  francs, 
which,  however,  it  did  not  guarantee.  These  funds 
were  largely  employed  to  found  the  chartered  com- 
panies provided  for  in  the  Decree  of  27th  Februar}', 
1887.  The  time  had  now  again  come  when  the 
Belgian  Chamber  should  consider  the  reasonable- 
ness of  asking  the  assistance  of  the  Belgian  nation, 

145 


146  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

especially  as  the  King's  African  enterprise  had  been 
undertaken  for  the  benefit  of  civilisation  and  the 
expansion  of  Belgian  markets. 

On  the  3rd  July,  1890,  the  day  after  the  General 
Act  of  the  Conference  had  been  signed,  a  Convention 
was  concluded  between  M.  Beernaert,  the  Finance 
Minister,  on  the  part  of  Belgium,  and  Baron  Van 
Eetvelde,  on  the  part  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  by 
which  Belgium  engaged  to  lend  the  Congo  State 
5,000,000  francs  at  once,  and  2,000,000  francs  a  year 
for  the  next  ten  years — 25,000,000  francs  in  all,  on 
condition  that  Belgium  should  have  the  option,  six 
months  after  the  expiration  of  the  ten  years,  of  an- 
nexing the  Congo  Free  State  ' '  with  all  the  rights  and 
advantages  attached  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  State 
."  provided  it  also  assumed  the  obligations 
of  the  State  to  third  parties,  "the  King-Sovereign 
expressly  refusing  all  indemnity  on  account  of  the 
personal  sacrifices  he  had  himself  made.''  It  was 
further  agreed: 

3.  From  the  present  time  the  Belgian  State  will  receive 
from  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo  such  information 
as  it  judges  desirable,  on  the  economical,  commercial,  and 
financial-  situation  of  the  latter.  It  may  specially  ask  for 
communication  of  the  budgets  of  receipts  and  expenses,  and 
of  the  customs  dues  both  on  imports  and  exports.  This  in- 
formation is  to  be  given,  with  the  sole  object  of  enlightening 
the  Belgian  Government,  and  the  latter  will  not  in  any  way 
interfere  in  the  administration  of  the  Independent  State  of 
the  Congo,  which  will  continue  to  be  attached  to  Belgium  only 
by  the  personal  union  of  the  two  crowns.  Nevertheless,  the 
Congo  State  engages  not  to  contract  any  new  loan  hereafter, 
without  the  assent  of  the  Belgian  Government. 


Pi 

0 


a 


o 


The  Congo  Bequeathed  to  Belgium      147 

4.  If  at  the  fixed  time  Belgium  decides  not  to  accept  the 
annexation  of  the  Congo  State,  the  sum  of  twenty-five  milhon 
francs  lent,  inscribed  in  the  ledger  of  its  debt,  would  not  be- 
come demandable  until  after  a  fresh  period  of  ten  years,  but 
it  should  bear  in  the  interval  interest  at  the  rate  of  3^  per 
cent.,  payable  every  six  months,  and  even  before  this  term 
the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo  should  devote  to  partial 
repayments  all  the  sums  obtained  from  cessions  of  land  or 
the  mines  of  the  domain. 

Long  before  the  date  of  the  Brussels  Conference 
and  the  Convention  just  concluded,  King  Leopold 
had  written  to  his  minister,  M.  Beernaert,  a  letter 
clearly  indicating  his  unselfish  purpose  in  developing 
the  Congo  State.  The  persons  who  charge  the  King 
of  the  Belgians  with  governing  the  Congo  for  his 
personal  benefit  might  temper  their  mendacity  by 
the  fact  that  this  letter  is  dated  5th  August,  1889, 
nearly  a  year  before  the  conclusion  of  the  Brussels 
Conference.  Having  regard  to  the  false  charges 
busily  purveyed  in  respect  of  his  Majesty's  true  in- 
tentions towards  his  people  and  the  Congo  State, 
it  seems  but  just  to  quote  it : 

Sth  August,  1889. 

Dear  Minister  [M.  Beernaert]. — I  have  never  ceased  to 
call  the  attention  of  my  countrymen  to  the  necessity  of  ex- 
tending their  view  to  countries  beyond  the  sea. 

History  teaches  that  States  of  limited  size  have  a  moral 
and  material  interest  in  stretching  beyond  their  narrow  front- 
iers. Greece  founded  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
opulent  cities,  centres  of  art  and  civilisation.  Venice,  later 
on,  established  its  greatness  on  the  development  of  its  mari- 
time and  commercial  relations,  not  less  than  on  its  political 
successes.     Holland  possesses  in  the  Indies  thirty  millions  of 


148  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

subjects,  who  exchange  the  commodities  of  the  tropics  for 

the  productions  of  the  mother  country. 

;     It  is  by  serving  the  cause  of  humanity  and  progress  that 

i people  of  the  second  rank  appear  as  useful  members  of  the 
great  family  of  nations.  /  More  than  any  other,  a  manufac- 
turing and  commercial  nation  like  ours  should  strive  to  secure 
outlets  for  all  its  workers,  for  those  of  thought,  capital,  and 
labour. 

These  patriotic  preoccupations  have  dominated  my  life. 
They  determined  the  creation  of  the  African  work. 
.      My  labours  have  not  been  sterile.     A  young  and  vast  State, 
{directed  from  Brussels,  has  peacefully  taken  its  place  under 
/.the  sun,  thanks  to  the  benevolent  aid  of  the  Powers  which 
have  applauded  its  beginning^    Belgians  administer  it,  whilst 
others  of  our  countrymen,  every  day  more  numerous,  profit- 
ably employ  their  capital  in  its  development. 

The  immense  river  basin  of  the  Upper  Congo  opens  to  our 
efforts  ways  of  rapid  and  cheap  communication,  which  per- 
mit us  to  penetrate  direct  into  the  centre  of  the  African  Con- 
tinent. The  construction  of  the  railway  of  the  region  of  the 
Cataracts  henceforth  assured,  thanks  to  the  recent  vote  of  the 
Legislature,  will  notably  increase  these  facilities  of  access. 
Under  these  conditions,  a  great  future  is  reserved  for  the 
Congo,  the  immense  value  of  which  will  soon  be  apparent  to 
every  eye. 

On  the  morrow  of  this  considerable  act,  I  have  thought  it 
my  duty  to  place  Belgium  herself,  when  death  shall  have 
struck  me,  in  a  position  to  profit  by  my  work,  as  well  as  by 
the  labour  of  those  who  have  aided  me  in  founding  and  direct- 
ing it,  and  whom  I  thank  here  once  more.  I  have  therefore 
made,  as  Sovereign  of  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo, 
the  Will  that  I  send  you.  I  ask  you  to  communicate  it  to 
the  Legislative  Chamber  at  the  moment  which  shall  appear  to 
you  the  most  opportune. 

The  beginnings  of  enterprises  such  as  those  which  have  so 
much  occupied  me  are  difficult  and  onerous.  I  have  held 
myself  bound  to  support  the  cost.     A  king,  in  order  to  serve 


w 


The  Congo  Bequeathed  to  Belgium      149 

his  country,  ought  not  to  fear  to  conceive  and  to  pursue  the 
reaHsation  of  a  work,  even  if  it  be  apparently  rash.  The 
wealth  of  a  sovereign  consists  in  public  prosperity;  it  alone 
can  constitute  in  his  eyes  an  enviable  treasure,  which  he 
should  endeavour  constantly  to  increase. 

To  the  day  of  my  death  I  shall  continue,  in  the  same  desire 
of  national  interest  which  has  hitherto  guided  me,  to  direct 
and  sustain  our  African  work ;  but  if,  without  awaiting  this 
term,  it  should  be  agreeable  to  the  country  to  establish  closer 
links  with  my  possessions  on  the  Congo,  I  should  not  hesitate 
to  place  them  at  its  disposal.  I  should  be  happy  to  see  it, 
during  my  lifetime,  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  their  possession. 
Allow  me,  in  the  meanwhile,  to  say  to  you  how  grateful  I  am 
towards  the  Chambers,  as  well  as  towards  the  Government, 
for  the  aid  that  they  have  afforded  me  on  several  occasions  in 
that  creation.  I  do  not  think  I  deceive  myself  by  affirm- 
ing that  Belgium  will  derive  important  advantages  from  it, 
and  that  she  will  see  opening  before  her,  on  a  new  continent, 
happy  and  larger  prospects. 

Believe  me,  dear  Minister,  etc. 

Leopold. 

Accompanying  this  noble  expression  of  a  monarch 
toward  his  people  on  his  sacrificial  work  in  their  be- 
half, was  the  King's  Will,  as  Sovereign  of  the  Congo 
Free  State: 

We,  Leopold  IL,  King  of  the  Belgians,  Sovereign  of  the 
Independent  State  of  the  Congo: 

Wishing  to  assure  to  Our  well-beloved  country  the  fruits  of 
the  work  which  for  many  years  We  have  pursued  on  the  Afri- 
can Continent,  with  the  generous  and  devoted  co-operation 
of  many  Belgians: 

Convinced  of  thus  contributing  to  assure  for  Belgium,  if  she 
wishes  it,  the  outlets  indispensable  for  her  commerce  and  her 
industry,  and  to  open  new  paths  for  the  activity  of  her 
children : 

Declare  by  these  presents,  that  We  bequeath  and  transmit, 


150  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

after  Our  death,  to  Belgium  all  our  sovereign  rights  over  the 
Independent  State  of  the  Congo,  as  they  are  recognised  by 
the  Declarations,  Conventions,  and  Treaties  concluded  since 
1884  between  the  foreign  Powers  on  the  one  side,  the  Inter- 
national Association  of  the  Congo  and  the  Independent  State 
of  the  Congo  on  the  other,  as  well  as  all  the  benefits,  rights, 
and  advantages  attached  to  that  sovereignty. 

Whilst  waiting  for  the  Belgian  Legislature  to  pronounce  its 
acceptance  of  Our  aforesaid  disposition,  the  sovereignty  will 
be  exercised  collectively  by  the  Council  of  the  three  adminis- 
trations of  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo,  and  by  the 
Governor-General. 

Leopold. 

Done  at  Brussels  the  2nd  of  August,  1889. 

The  announcement  of  the  King's  Will,  bequeathing 
the  Congo  State  to  the  Belgian  people,  was  received 
with  a  demonstration  of  popular  approval.  In  1901 
the  Convention  of  3rd  July,  1890,  giving  Belgium 
the  right  to  annex  the  Congo  State,  was  extended 
for  another  term  of  ten  years.  Meantime  the  great 
prosperity  of  the  State  and  the  voice  of  saner  lib- 
eralism in  the  Belgian  Chamber  are  combining  to 
identify  the  more  intimate  support  of  the  Belgian 
Government  with  King  Leopold's  progressive  Afri- 
can colony.  That  the  Belgian  State  will  take  over 
that  colony  in  19 10,  or  on  the  death  of  King  Leopold, 
is  hardly  within  the  pale  of  rational  doubt. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

TRIBES  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 

THE  difficulty  in  arriving  at  an  estimate  of  the 
native  population  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
that  tolerably  approximates  the  truth  is 
very  great.  Some  authorities  place  it  at  as  high 
as  30,000,000,  some  as  low  as  15,000,000,  population 
while  other  observers,  equally  entitled  to  of  Congo 
respect,    assert   that    20,000,000   is   about  ^*^*®' 

accurate. 

This  wide  divergence  of  opinion  ceases  to  be 
matter  for  surprise  when  we  reflect  that  the  popu- 
lation of  an  empire  so  important  as  China,  known 
to  white  men  for  centuries,  is  variously  estimated 
by  them  at  anything  between  300,000,000  and 
400,000,000. 

Compared  with  our  knowledge  of  China,  our  ac- 
quaintance with  the  countries  and  peoples  comprised 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  Congo  Free  State  is 
a  thing  of  yesterday.  The  nomadic  habits  of  the 
various  semi-savage  tribes  of  which  the  population 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  consists  renders  their  exact 
enumeration  impossible.  Besides,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  but  that  vast  numbers  of  the  dwarf  (Pigmy) 
race  inhabit  parts  of  the  great  Central  African 
forest  not  yet  penetrated  b)'  the  white  man. 

151 


152  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  all  the  vast  region 
with  which  this  book  is  concerned  contains  no  race 
or  tribe  that  has  not  come  in  contact  with 
Civmsation  ^^^  civilising  Belgians,  or  whose  barbarous 
habits  and  customs  have  not,  in  greater  or 
lesser  degree,  been  modified  into  some  semblance  of 
conformity  with  the  standard  of  civilisation  exem- 
plified by  their  new  masters.  At  present  that  con- 
formity is  far  from  being  general,  and  where  it  is 
found  it  is  invariably  more  superficial  than  real. 
To  frankly  admit  so  much  is  in  nowise  a  reflection 
upon  the  extent  or  value  of  the  civilising  influence 
exerted  by  the  Belgians  upon  their  King's  dusky 
subjects.  The  complete  transformation  of  the  bar- 
barian into  the  civilised  man  is  not  possible  in  one 
generation.  A  consideration  of  the  principal  tribes, 
their  habits  and  customs,  as  they  were  when  the 
white  strangers  first  appeared  among  them,  and  as 
to  some  extent  they  continue  to  this  day,  cannot, 
therefore,  fail  in  interest. 

The  nomadic  habits  of  the  native  races  inhabiting 
the  Congo  region,  discussed  at  length  in  another 
Origin  of  chapter,  render  an  inquiry  into  their  ori- 
Congo  gin  a  work  of  great  difficulty  and  uncer- 
^^"'-  tain  result.  Sir  Harry  Johnston,  G.C.M.G., 
K.C.B.,  whose  expert  opinion  upon  this  subject  is 
entitled  to  the  utmost  respect,  believes  that  the 
Negro  type  which  originated  in  Southern  Asia  wan- 
dered across  the  peninsula  of  Arabia  into  Eastern 
Africa,  mingling,  perhaps,  on  the  way,  with  the  Cau- 
casians from  the  north,  evolving  that  negroid  race 
known  as  the   Hamite,    whence    sprang    the   early 


Is 

W) 
G 
ui 

m 

B 


Tribes  of  the  Congo  State  153 

Egyptians,  and  to  which  the  SomaH,  Gala,  Abys- 
sinian, and  Nubian  owe  their  origin. 

From  Eastern  Africa  this  primitive  race  is  thought 
to  have  spread,  in  the  course  of  ages,  throughout  all 
Central  Africa,  and  probably  to  have  penetrated 
almost  to  the  southern  and  western  coasts  of  that 
continent,  changing  their  physical  characteristics 
according  to  their  environment,  and  again  modifying 
those  characteristics  by  subsequent  intermixture. 
The  numerous  Central  African  tribes,  as  they  exist 
to-day,  exhibit  marked  differences  in  height,  shape, 
language,  habits,  customs,  and  even  in  colour,  some 
being  an  intense  black,  some  of  a  chocolate  hue, 
some  reddish  brown,  and  some  of  a  bronze  aspect. 
The  five  main  divisions,  according  to  Johnston, 
appear  to  be:  (i)  the  forest  Pigmy;  (2)  the  Bantu; 
(3)  the  Nile  Negro;  (4)  the  Masai,  and  (5)  the 
Hamite. 

The  native  tribes  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Leopold- 
ville  consist  chiefly  of  the  Musseronges,  the  Kakon- 
gos,  the  Baoilis,  and  the  Mayombes. 

The  Mvisseronges  are  difficult  of  approach.  Not 
only  do  they  hold  themselves  severely  aloof  from 
the  white  man,  they  are  also  very  shy  and  g^j^g 

guarded  in  their  intercourse  with  other  Tribal 
native  tribes,  and  are  never  known  to  com-  ^^^^^' 

bine  with  any  of  them,  even  when  threatened  by  a 
common  enemy.  They  are  tall,  strong,  and  better- 
looking  than  most  members  of  the  Negro  race, 
though  this  commendation  must  not  be  taken  for  a 
certificate  of  beauty.  They  file  their  teeth  to  a 
point,  or  cut  them  square,  or  into  semicircles,  their 


154  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

object  being  to  provide  themselves  thereby  with  a 
weapon  for  use  as  a  last  resort  in  a  fight,  when  they 
literally  throw  themselves  upon  their  enemies  and 
seize  them  by  the  throat  with  their  fangs,  as  a 
bulldog  inight  do.  They  wear  their  hair  short,  and 
indulge  in  the  practice  of  tattooing,  for  purposes  of 
ornament,  but  not  to  any  great  extent.  Strange 
to  say,  the  women  are  taller  and  stronger  than  the 
men,  which  may  perhaps  be  explained  by  the  fact 
that  all  the  work  of  the  tribe,  except  hunting  and 
fishing,  falls  to  their  share. 

The  Kakongos  and  Mayombes  are  less  intensely 
distrustful,  but  the  Baoilis  are  markedly  hostile  to 
the  white  man.  They  have  been  known  to  refuse 
to  barter  oysters— their  principal  diet,  of  which  they 
frequently  have  supplies  largely  exceeding  their 
requirements — for  European  commodities  which  it 
has  been  certain  that  they  ardently  desired  to 
possess. 

All  these  four  tribes  are  of  cleanly  habits;  and 
their  practice  of  bathing  daily,  when  the  proximity 
Modes  et  ^^  ^  river  or  lake  puts  it  in  their  power  to 
Robes  k  la  do  SO,  may  put  to  shame  some  of  the  in- 
Congo.  habitants  of  great  cities.  The  forest  tribes, 
to  whom  cleanliness  by  water  is  impossible,  smear 
their  bodies  with  palm  oil  and  a  kind  of  red  ochre, 
which  they  afterwards  scrape  off.  The  original  cos- 
tume of  a  few  leaves,  or  an  exceedingly  small  apron 
made  from  fibrous  bark,  for  women,  and  a  loin- 
cloth of  the  same  material  for  men,  has  yielded 
to  the  superior  attraction  of  common  cotton  goods, 
which  now  reach  them  from  far-away  Manchester 


bfi 

a 
"S 

<u 

pq 

a 

a 

o 


Tribes  of  the  Congo  State  155 

or  Saxon ^^  These  stiiffs,  ornamented  by  large 
patterns  in  flaming  reds  or  yellows,  delight  the  eye 
and  rejoice  the  heart  of  the  Congolese  maid  and 
matron,  while  such  of  the  men  as  desire  to  stand  well 
with  the  gentler  (?)  sex  will  also  condescend  to  use 
them.  No  time  and  skill  are  devoted  to  making  a 
garment.  A  piece  of  the  gaudy  stuff  wound  in  loose 
folds  around  the  loins  suffices  both  for  men  and 
women.  In  every  tribe,  children  of  both  sexes  are 
entirely  nude  until  they  reach  the  age  of  puberty. 
In  at  least  one  tribe,  neither  men  nor  women  wear 
any  covering.  In  a  few  tribes  it  is  customary  for 
the  women  to  remain  nude  until  they  are  married. 
Some  women  denote  their  married  state  by  covering 
their  breasts  with  strange  ornaments,  while  others 
secure  this  object  by  elaborately  dressing  their  hair, 
which  they  build  up  to  a  great  height  by  aid  of  palm 
fibre  and  gum.  Both  men  and  women,  of  what- 
ever tribe,  ornament  themselves  with  just  as  many 
collars,  bangles,  and  anklets  as  they  can  obtain. 
Without  exception,  the  possession  of  a  few  strings 
of  coloured  beads  is  to  them  a  source  of  great  hap- 
piness. They  gaze  upon  such  treasures  with  de- 
hght  and  guard  *them  with  jealous  care.  Some  of 
their  customs  are  very  peculiar.  Men  and  women 
will  not  eat  together.  A  man  guilty  of  eating  in 
company  of  his  wives  would  be  hopelessly  disgraced. 
In  time  past  they  have  eaten  one  another,  and 
would  doubtless  do  so  again  should  existing  restraint 
be  removed,  but  they  may  not  eat  together.  After 
their  separate  repast,  the  sexes  mingle  again  freely, 
and  both  engage  in  smoking  their  long-stemmed  pipes. 


1 56         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

All  the  males  of  the  Congo  Pigmies  seen  by  Sir 
Harry  Johnston  were  circumcised,  and  all  in  both 

sexes  had  their  upper  incisor  teeth  and 
Pigmies       canines   sharpened   to   a   point.     In   their 

forest  homes  they  go  naked,  both  men  and 
women;  but  in  presence  of  strangers  the  men  usually 
don  a  small  covering  of  genet,  monkey,  or  antelope 
skin,  or  a  wisp  of  bark-cloth,  and  the  women  leaves 
or  bark-cloth. 

The  Pigmies  [says  Johnston]  have  practically  no  religion, 
and  no  trace  of  spirit-  or  ancestor-worship.  They  have  some 
idea  that  thunder,  lightning,  and  rain  are  the  manifestations 
of  a  Power  or  Entity  in  the  heavens,  but  a  bad  Power,  and 
when  (reluctantly)  induced  to  talk  on  the  subject,  they  shake 
their  heads  and  clack  their  tongues  in  disapproval,  for  the 
mysterious  Something  in  the  heavens  occasionally  slays  their 
comrades  with  his  fire  [lightning].  They  have  little  or  no 
belief  in  a  life  after  death,  but  sometimes  think  vaguely  that 
their  dead  relations  live  again  in  the  form  of  the  red  bush- 
pig,  whose  strange  bristles  are  among  the  few  brightly  col- 
oured objects  that  attract  their  attention.  They  have  no 
settled  government  or  hereditary  chief,  merely  clustering 
round  an  able  hunter  or  cunning  fighter,  and  accepting  him 
as  law-giver  for  the  time.  Marriage  is  only  the  purchase  of  a 
girl  from  her  father.  Women  generally  give  birth  to  their 
offspring  in  the  forest,  severing  the  naVel  string  with  their 
teeth,  and  burying  the  placenta  in  the  ground.  The  dead 
are  usually  buried  in  dug  graves,  and  if  men  of  importance, 
food,  tobacco,  and  weapons  are  buried  with  the  corpse. 

The  same  authority  has  observed  that  all  the 
Bantu-speaking    forest   folk    on    the    Up- 

Cicatrisa-  r^  ,  •  •       -    •      -•  o 

tion  P^^   Congo   practise   cicatrisation,     bcores 

and   weals    of    skin   are    raised   either   by 

burning  or  cutting  with  a  knife,  and  introducing  the 


Tribes  of  the  Congo  State  157 

irritating  juice  of  a  plant  into  the  wound.  The 
effect  of  this  is  to  raise  on  the  surface  of  the  body 
large  or  small  lumps  of  skin.  Sometimes  these 
raised  weals  are  so  small  that  they  produce  almost 
the  effect  of  tattooing;  at  other  times  they  are  large, 
ugly  excrescences.  The  Babira  people  cicatrise  their 
chests  and  stomachs ;  but  in  the  forest,  toward  the  wa- 
ters of  the  Congo,  their  faces  are  hideously  scarred. 
Both  men  and  women  of  the  Bantu  Kavirondo  ex- 
tract the  two  middle  incisor  teeth  from  the  lower 
jaw,  in  the  belief  that  if  a  man  retains  all  his  lowei' 
incisor  teeth  he  will  be  killed  in  warfare,  and  that 
if  the  wife  fails  to  pull  out  her  teeth  it  may  cause 
her  husband  to  perish.  For  the  same  reason  of 
averting  ill-fortune,  a  woman  inflicts  cuts  on  the 
skin  of  her  forehead,  which  leave  small  scars.  The 
women  also,  as  a  means  of  securing  good  fortune  for 
themselves  and  their  husbands,  make  a  number  of 
small  incisions,  usually  in  patterns,  in  the  skin  of  the 
abdomen,  into  which  they  rub  an  irritant,  so  that 
huge  weals  rise  up  into  great  lumps  of  skin.  The 
Kavirondo  husband,  before  setting  out  to  fight  or 
starting  on  a  journey  attended  with  great  risks, 
usually  makes  a  few  extra  incisions  on  his  wife's 
body. 

The  traveller  in  the  Congo  will  frequently  ob- 
serve repulsive  disfigurements  in  the  natives,  and 
is  very  liable  to  attribute  to  the  cruelty 
of  oppression  what  are  but  nianifestations  praud^ 
of  old-time  tribal  customs.  The  danger  is 
accentuated  by  the  organised  campaign  of  slander 
now  proceeding  against  the  Congo  Free  State,  which 


158  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

does  not  scruple  to  make  capital  out  of  such  an  op- 
portune circumstance. 

Almost  all  the  tribes  entertain  a  hazy  notion  of  an 
invisible  Supreme  Being;  but  they  regard  them- 
selves as  of  no  account  in  His  estimation,  and  di- 
rect their  petitions  for  supernatural  aid  to  their 
fetiches,  which  they  endeavour  to  propitiate  by 
gifts  through  the  medium  of  their  witch  doctor  or 
medicine  man,  a  kind  of  priest  who  pretends  to  pos- 
sess supernatural  powers  and  abuses  the  credulity  of 
his  followers  to  an  extraordinary  extent. 

Among  the  Mangbettus,  a  dead  chief  is  buried  in 
a  sitting  posture,  in  the  centre  of  a  new  hut  specially 
built  on  the  banks  of  a  stream.  Five  of 
w^dows"^  his  widows  are  strangled  and  their  bodies 
laid  out  with  their  feet  towards  their  dead 
husband.  The  bodies  are  then  covered  with  bark- 
cloth  saturated  with  palm  oil,  after  which  the  spot 
is  held  to  be  sacred  and  must  not  be  approached, 
under  penalty  of  death,  by  anybody  but  the  ruling 
chief  and  one  attendant. 

At  the  mouth  of  the  Uelle  is  found  the  great 
mass  of  the  Azande,  a  very  numerous  and  important 
tribe,  who  range  the  country  from  23  de- 
Azande  grecs  east  to  30  degrees  west,  and  from  6 
degrees  north  to  3  degrees  south.  There 
are  three  subdivisions  of  the  Azande — the  Abandjia, 
the  Avongura,  and  the  Makraka,  born  fighters  all, 
and  devoted  to  cannibalism.  Some  of  the  Azande 
men,  however,  will  eat  only  the  flesh  of  their  ene- 
mies whom  they  have  slain  in  battle,  declining  a 
diet  of  human  flesh  otherwise  obtained,  though  they 


M 


Tribes  of  the  Congo  State  159 

all  (except   such   of   them  as    dwell    south  of    the 
Uelle)  forbid  their  women  and  children  to  touch  it. 

And  here  arises  a  curious  subject  for  speculation. 
The  cannibalistic  Azande  are  much  farther  advanced 
in  the  arts  of  peace  and  war  than  many  other  tribes 
that  are  not  cannibal — ^the  forest  Pigmies,  for  in- 
stance. Notwithstanding  some  peculiar  customs 
concerning  them,  they  hold  their  women  in  high  re- 
gard, and  never  barter  them  for  goats  and  cows,  the 
almost  universal  practice  among  other  Central  Afri- 
can tribes.  Their  skill,  too,  in  agriculture,  pottery, 
and  in  the  making  and  playing  of  their  musical  in- 
struments, seems  quite  incompatible  with  their 
abhorred  anthropophagy. 

Each  Azande  chief  is  really  a  despotic  king.  His 
power  over  his  subjects  is  absolute,  and  any  one  of 
them  who  is  so  unfortunate  as  to  offend  him  is  sim- 
ply handed  over  to  the  executioner,  a  procedure 
which  to  the  Azande  mind  seems  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world.  The  courage  of  the  Azandes  is 
beyond  praise.  They  know  no  fear;  and  when  as- 
sailed by  a  murderous  fire,  against  which  they  have 
no  chance  of  success,  they  will  rush  right  up  to  their 
enemy  and  grapple  with  him  hand  to  hand,  though 
nine-tenths  of  their  fellows  fall  by  the  way.  Their 
favourite  weapons  are  the  lance  and  light  throwing- 
spear,  and  each  warrior  carries,  in  addition,  a  shield. 

Among    the    Azande,    criminals    condemned    to 
death  are  despatched  with  the  lance.     Oc- 
casionally, however,  they  employ  a  peculiar      "^potso/ 
method  of  trial,  known  as  the  ordeal  by 
poison,  which  precludes  this   method  of  execution. 


i6o         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

On  such  occasions  the  chief  acts  as  judge,  and  the 
person  accused  is  made  to  drink  a  cup  of  poison,  the 
theory  being  that  if  the  accusation  is  baseless 
the  accused  survives  unharmed.  Of  course,  the  in- 
variable result  is  that  the  drinker  falls  dead  within 
a  minute  or  so.  It  is  safe  to  assume  that  an  Azande 
chief  is  sufficiently  intelligent  never  to  subject  one 
of  his  tribe  to  this  ordeal  whose  death  he  has  not 
previously  determined  upon. 

Another  singular  custom,  not  peculiar  to  the 
Azande,  but  common  to  all  Central  African  tribes, 
Blood-  ^s  ^^6  ceremony  of  blood-brotherhood.  Two 
Brother-  men  who  are  in  no  way  related  having 
^°°^*  agreed  to  become  "blood-brothers,"  i.  e., 

to  live  in  peace  and  amity  for  ever  after,  meet  in  the 
open  air,  in  the  presence  of  the  chiefs  and  people, 
when  a  small  incision  is  made  in  the  forearm  of  each 
"brother,"  sufficiently  deep  to  cause  a  little  blood 
to  flow.  Each  mutilated  one  then  licks  the  blood 
from  the  other's  arm,  and  thenceforth  they  are  re- 
lated as  brothers. 

A  slight  modification  of  this  ceremony  was  early 
conceded  by  the  various  chiefs  to  accommodate  the 
pardonable  squeamishness  of  Europeans;  and  now, 
instead  of  licking  each  other's  blood,  the  "brothers" 
merely  rub  their  incisions  together,  so  that  their 
blood  may  mingle.  Stanley  was  made  blood- 
brother  to  so  many  African  chiefs  that  at  last  his 
arm  was  well  scored  with  incisions.  Several  Bel- 
gian commandants,  and  a  few  Englishmen,  have 
submitted  to  this  operation;  always,  it  is  almost 
needless  to  remark,  from  motives  of  policy,  for  it 


a 

t3 


Tribes  of  the  Congo  State  i6i 

has  been  proved  that  Africans  regard  the  rite  with 
real  veneration,  and  esteem  the  "brother"  they  ac- 
quire by  it  at  least  as  highly  as  they  would  a  natural 
brother. 

It  is  not  necessary  in  this  place  to  give  the  names 
of  all  the  tribes  of  which  the  native  population  of 
the  vast  Congo  region  is  composed.  They  are  numer- 
ous, and  for  the  most  part  not  easily  pronounceable. 
Of  the  tribes  not  already  referred  to,  the  Basundis, 
Bakuendas,  Batekas,  Bayanzis,  Bangalas,  Batetelas, 
Mongos,  Bantu,  and  Mombettus  are  most  prominent. 
While  differing  in  personal  appearance,  prowess, 
habits,  and  customs,  clearly  denoting  that  the}'  are 
not  descended  from  a  common  stock,  there  are  not 
wanting  certain  traits  which  distinguish  them  all. 
All  are  polygamous,  nearly  all  are  cannibal,  and  the 
morals  of  the  most  advanced  among  them  such  as 
shock  the  average  civilised  man  upon  his  first  con- 
tact with  them.  Strangely  inconsistent  with  the 
low  moral  sense  which  prevails  among  most  of  the 
tribes,  some  of  them  punish  the  crime  of  adultery 
with  death,,  others  by  horribly  mutilating  the  male 
oifender. 

Cannibalism  has  long  been  suppressed  by  the 
Congo  Government  just  as  murder  is  suppressed 
among  civilised  communities;  but  the  hor-  Cannibai- 
rid  practice  is  still  indulged  here  and  there,  '^™' 

as  opportunity  occurs  for  evading  the  vigilance  of 
the  authorities.  So  recently  as  1898,  and  possibly 
to  the  present  day,  it  was  necessary  to  maintain  a 
constant  guard  at  the  cemetery  in  Leopoldville,  the 
chief  station  on  the  Upper  Congo,  to  prevent  the 


1 62  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Bangalas  unearthing  the  dead  and  carrying  them 
ofif  to  feast  upon.  Several  such  cases  were  proved 
against  them,  and  capital  punishment  had  to  be 
resorted  to  in  order  to  stamp  it  out.  This  horrid 
subject  is  sickening  to  contemplate;  but  no  de- 
scription, however  brief  or  superficial,  of  the  Congo 
people,  can  ignore  a  fact  which  has  occasioned,  and 
still  presents,  such  a  tremendous  difficulty  for  civil- 
isation to  surmount.  This  is  but  one  of  many  diffi- 
culties with  which  the  Congo  Free  State  has  had  to 
contend,  and  those  who  sit  in  judgment  upon  that 
State  should  bear  in  mind  that  the  Central  African 
black  is  not  by  nature  predisposed  to  civilisation. 
Not  all  the  cannibal  tribes  are  so  repulsive  and  cruel 
as  the  Bangalas.  Most  of  them  eat  no  other  human 
flesh  but  that  of  their  enemies  slain  in  battle.  That 
source  of  supply  will  not  suffice  for  the  Bangalas, 
who  make  up  its  deficiency  with  prisoners  or  slaves. 
Having  broken  their  victim's  limbs,  they  place  him 
in  a  pool  of  water,  with  his  head  supported  just 
above  its  surface  so  that  he  may  not  drown.  After 
having  left  him  in  that  position  for  three  days  (if 
he  survives  so  long),  he  is  killed  and  eaten.  Another 
method  is  to  behead  the  victim,  singe  all  the  hair 
from  the  body  over  an  ember  fire,  and  then  cut  it 
into  pieces  for  cooking.  The  portions  not  imme- 
diately eaten  are  smoke-dried  and  put  aside  for 
another  occasion.  The  teeth  are  extracted  and 
made  into  necklaces  by  the  women.  Sometimes 
the  skin  is  used  for  drumheads. 

It  is  the  general  opinion  of  competent  observers 
that  polygamy  will  for  many  years  stirvive  the  ex- 


o 
a 


Tribes  of  the  Congo  State  163 

tinction  of  cannibalism.  Nothing  but  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  will  overcome  that  evil.  The  native 
mind  cannot  be  induced  by  ordinary  ars^u-   _  , 

.  1  Polygamy. 

ment  to  see  any  wrong  m  it.  Why  a  man 
should  not  have  just  as  many  wives  as  he  can  afford 
to  buy  and  keep  is  too  much  for  his  comprehension. 
He  regards  woman  as  created  solely  for  his  pleasure 
and  profit,  and  trades  in  her  accordingly.  He  buys 
her  from  her  father  for  one  or  two  goats  or  a  cow; 
she  becomes  the  mother  of  his  children,  and  prepares 
and  cooks  his  food  for  him.  That  is  her  career,  and 
she  shares  it  with  as  many  other  wives  as  her  hus- 
band's inclination  and  resources  permit  him  to  buy. 
When  she  dies  she  is  buried — sometimes.  Certain 
Central  African  tribes  regard  burial  after  death  as 
a  superfluous  ceremony  for  women,  and  place  their 
bodies  where  they  will  be  devoured  by  hyaenas  and 
vultirres.  From  two  to  three  wives  is  the  average |  / 
quantum  of  the  ordinary  Central  African  barbarian, 
and  between  thirty  and  forty  for  a  chief. 

After  their  prodigious  effort  and  expense  in  sup- 
pressing the  slave  trade,  the  Belgians  set  to  work  to 
weld  into  a  homogeneous  civilised  State  a  vast  region 
full  of  warring  tribes  with  attributes  such  as  these, 
utterly  oblivious  to  all  sense  of  right  and  truth  as 
readers  of  these  pages  understand  these  words. 

Looking  at  the  Congolese  as  they  were  in  1876, 
and  again  as  they  are  in  1905,  who  can  a  Reflec- 
honestly  deny  that  King  Leopold  has,  so  *'°°- 

far,  well  performed  his  arduous  mission  ? 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  CONGO  PUBLIC  FORCE 

THE  State's  military  organisation  is  constituted 
by  what  is  called  the  Congo  Public  Force 
{Force  Puhlique).  It  had  its  origin  in  the 
necessities  of  the  International  Association  before  the 
State  had  gone  far  along  its  difficult  way.  It  was 
To  Main-  recruitcd  from  the^.blacks  of  Zanzibar  and 
tain  along  the  West  Coast  at  Lagos,  Sierra  Leone, 

Order.  Elmira,  and  Accra.  The  first  troops  were, 
therefore,  foreigners — -Zanzibaris  and  Haussas.  Their 
foreign  origin  was,  in  a  sense,  an  element  of  security 
to  the  Association  when  it  had  to  direct  repressive 
measures  against  some  of  the  Congolese  tribes.  The 
Zanzibaris  and  the  Haussas  had  great  military  apti- 
tude and,  lacking  sympathy  for  the  Congolese,  were 
generally  loyal  to  their  commanders.  They  loved 
an  enemy  from  the  instinct  inherent  in  savage  natures. 
J  The  maintenance  of  this  early  body  of  troops  was 
^exceedingly  expensive  for  the  young  State.  Be- 
x/sides food,  uniform,  and  medical  attendance,  these 
mercenaries  received  one  franc  twenty -five  centimes 
a  day.  Moreover,  on  the  expiration  of  their  term 
of  service  they  were  sent  back  to  their  homes  at  the 
expense  of  the  Government.  As  the  term  of  their 
engagement  was  only  three  years,  this  obligation 
formed  an  important  addition  to  their  cost. 

It  was  beyond  the  financial  power  of  the  State  to 

164 


7^r" 


tf.m 


o 


The  Congo  Public  Force  165 

provide  an  adequate  military  organisation  on  such  a 
basis.  While  the  administrators  of  the  Congo  were  de- 
vising means  for  the  support  of  an  efficient  force  at 
a  reduced  cost,  the  British  government  on  the  Gold 
Coast  prohibited  further  recruiting  of  Haussas  by 
foreign  states.  Barred  from  getting  its  soldiers  from 
surrounding  British  territory,  the  Congo  Government 
proceeded  to  develop  its  earlier  plans  for  raising  a 
native  local  force,  the  first  purpose  of  which  was  that 
it  should  supplement  the  main  body  of  regular  troops. 
The  nucleus  of  what  is  the  present  Public  Force 
were  the  men  of  the  Bang^alatribe.  whom  Captain 
Coquilhat  employed  as  armeSfpolice  when  he  founded 
Equateurville  in  i^^^  A  short  tim.e  thereafter, 
Captain  Van  Dorpe  made  the  same  experiment 
among  the  Manvanga.  Finding  the  men  from  both 
tribes  fit  for  a  military  career,  the  principle  of  em- 
ploying aboriginal  races  in  the  Public  Force  was 
followed  with  the  rapid  establishment  of  the  numer- 
ous posts  and  stations  erected  at  that  time.  The 
wisdom  of  employing  natives  for  the  organisation 
of  such  a  national  force  was  soon  apparent.  In  1888 
an  order  was  issued  to.Jonn  ei^ght  companies  of  one 
liundred  and  fifty  men,  with..po\Yer_  to  increase  the 
number  to  two  hundred  and  fifty.  It  was  not,  how- 
over,  till  1 89 1  that  Baron  Van  Eetvelde  and  the 
Governor-General,  M.  Camille  Janssen,  drafted  a 
practical  scheme  for  the  foundation  of  a  permanent 
Public  Force.  Mr.  Demetrius  C.  Boulger.  whose 
volume  entitled  The  Congo  State  treats  at  length 
of  the  subject  up  to  1898,  describes  the  scheme 
which  the  Sovereign  had  approved: 


1 66         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  principal  features  of  the  scheme  were,  that  the  force 
should  be  divided  into  twelve  companies  corresponding  with 
the  administrative  districts,  and  that  one  hundred  and  twenty 
European  officers,  chiefly  Belgians,  should  be  appointed  to  the 
command  and  disciplining  of  this  force.  The  different  grades  of 
this  army  were:  one  commandant,  eleven  captains,  ten  lieuten- 
ants ,  thirty-nine  sub-lieutenants ,  and  sixty  sergeants .  The  new 
system  of  recruiting  was  of  two  kinds.  The  first  provided  for 
the  engagement  of  volunteers  for  a  period  not  exceeding  seven 
years,  and  the  second  for  an  enforced  levy  of  militia  by  order 
of  the  Governor-General,  and  arranged  between  the  commis- 
sary of  the  district  affected  and  the  local  chiefs.  The  levy 
was  to  be  made,  wherever  possible,  by  lot,  among  the  men 
between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  thirty.  The  term  of  service 
for  the  latter  was  to  be  five  years,  with  a  further  period  of  two 
years  in  the  reserve.  Each  man  received,  besides  food  for 
himself  and  his  wife  (if  he  had  one) ,  a  daily  pay  of  twenty -one 
centimes,  or  a  sixth  of  that  which  had  to  be  paid  for  the  alien 
soldier.  Moreover,  the  expense  of  sending  the  men  back  to 
their  homes  was  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The  reduction  in  the 
cost  meant,  besides  a  saving  to  the  Government,  the  possibil- 
ity of  raising  the  strength  of  the  force  to  a  figure  more  in 
proportion  to  the  requirements  of  the  State.  Of  the  old  alien 
contingent,  it  has  never  been  found  possible  to  maintain  more 
than  three  thousand  men,  and  the  native  contribution  to  this 
was  about  two  hundred;  but  in  189 1  the  latter  was  increased 
to  sixteen  hundred  men,  and  in  1897,  by  which  time  the  alien 
element  had  been  eliminated,  the  Public  Force  was  raised  to 
a  grand  total  of  eight  thousand  militiamen  and  four  thousand 
volunteers.  The  number  of  companies  had  been  raised  to 
twenty -two,  with  a  nominal  strength  of  nine  thousand  five 
hundred  and  forty  men  at  the  end  of  last  year  (1897) ,  whereas 
in  1891  the  total  was  only  two  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
fifty. 

For  the  purpose  of  training  these  forces,  seven  camps  of 
about  five  hundred  men  each  were  formed,  and  the  period  of 
training  the  men  undergo  is  fixed  at  eighteen  months.  The 
uniform  is  blue  linen,  or,  for  full  uniform,  blue  cloth,  with  a 


.tUtK^W*  '• 

pr^ 

1 

^W^^^V^^^^^S* '                           ^Hn-H   I^^^^^W^  ^^^^^ib^ 

A  Bangala  Chief,  with  his  Harem. 


Native  Making  Butter  at  his  Home  in  Botandana  (,Kivu). 


The  Congo  Public  Force  167 

scarlet  fez.  The  arm  in  general  use  is  the  Albini,  with  a  short 
bayonet.  The  white  officers  carry  the  Mauser  rifle,  with  a 
magazine.  The  greatest  pains  is  taken  in  the  fire-training  and 
discipline  of  the  men.  Competitions  are  held  every  three 
months  among  sections  of  fifty  men,  and  prizes  awarded.  A 
great  improvement  has  been  eftected  in  the  housing  of  the 
troops,  who  are  now  almost  entirely  accommodated  in  brick 
barracks.  The  artillery  of  the  force  is  of  considerable  strength, 
and  includes,  Krupps,  Maxims  and  Nordenfelts. 

The  seven  camps  of  instruction  are  Zambi,  for  the  Lower 
Congo;  Kinshassa,  Bolobo,  Irebu,  Kassongo,  Umangi,  La 
Romee,  for  the  Upper  Congo.  The  principal  armed  camps, 
as  they  are  called  (because  they  are  bases  of  military  power), 
are  those  at  Lusambo,  Bomokandi,  and  the  Aruwimi;  but 
Vankerckhovenville,  Dungu,  and  Redjaf  are  now  of  equal,  if 
not  of  greater,  importance.  At  Kinshassa,  on  Stanley  Pool, 
a  fort  with  a  battery  has  been  constructed  for  the  protec- 
tion of  Leopoldville  and  the  railway  terminus ;  and  here  an 
experiment  has  been  successfully  tried  of  utilising  the  ser- 
vices of  prisoners  of  war.  ]\Ien  selected  from  the  captives 
of  the  nurherous  expeditions  have  been  passed  through  a 
probationary  course  on  the  works  of  this  place,  and  in  this 
manner  a  considerable  number  of  recruits  have  been  ob- 
tained for  the  Public  Force  on  more  favourable  terms  than 
the  militiamen  recruited  through  the  chiefs.  Kinshassa  is 
not  the  only  fortified  place  within  the  State  territory;  for 
at  Chinkakassa,  near  Boma,  a  strong  fort  has  been  con- 
structed, commanding  the  navigation  of  the  Congo  and  the 
approaches  from  the  ocean.  Here  Captain  Petillon,  of  the 
Belgian  Engineers,  has  placed  eight  Krupps  and  a  number 
of  smaller  guns  in  an  admirably  selected  position,  while 
the  Mongos  tribe,  from  the  Equateurville  district,  has  sup- 
plied an  adequate  number  of  skilful  and  handy  gunners. 
The  authorities  of  the  Congo  State  will  experience  no  dif- 
ficulty in  procuring  suitable  men  for  this  arm  of  their  Public 
Force. 

The  first  and  oldest  company  of  the  Public  Force  deserves 
a  special  notice  to  itself.     This  is  the  auxiliary^xompagy  of 


1 68         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  Congo  Railway,  and  was  founded  by  royal  decree  of  9th 
August,  1890,  or  twelve  months  earlier  than  the  decree  con- 
stituting the  general  force.  Its  organisation  was  entrusted 
to  Captain  Weyns,  an  officer  of  the  Carabiniers.  Its  strength 
was  first  fixed  at  the  modest  total  of  fifty  men;  in  1892  it  was 
increased  to  a  hundred  men,  and  afterwards  it  received  a 
further  addition  of  fifty  men.  The  task  entrusted  to  this 
corps  was  the  protection  of  the  railway  works  and"  of  TRe~^il- 
lages  through  which  the  railway  passed."  As"-eight  thousand 
"navvies  were  employed  on  the  line,  and  as  these  were  com- 
posed of  many  nationalities,  the  task  was  no  sinecure,  but  it 
was  performed  with  perfect  success  and  without  friction.  The 
auxiliary  force  was  recruited  in  a  different  manner  from  the 
rest  of  the  military.  It  contained  several  elements:  for  in- 
stance, twent^r-five  Senegalese,  and  fifty  Batetelas  from  the 
country  between  the  Sankuru  and  the  Lualaba.  Although  of 
precisely  the  same  race  as  the  mutineers  of  the  Dhanis  column, 
/  the  latter  gave  no  trouble  in  1897.  Like  the  other  militiamen 
y  of  the  State,  they  serve  for  five  years  with  the  colours  and  for 
two  years  in  the  reserve,  but  the  cost  of  maintaining  this  corps 
is  borne  by  the  railway  company.  It,  however,  forms  an 
integral  part  of  the  general  Public  Force,  and  can  be  utilised 
if  any  occasion  arises.  Captain  Weyns  reported  so  favourably 
of  the  quickness  of  the  Batetela  recruits  and  their  military 
aptitude,  that  all  vacancies  in  this  company  are  now,  like 
those  in  the  rest  of  the  Public  Force,  filled  up  with  natives  of 
the  Congo  territory. 

In  the  archives  of  the  Congo  State's  Administra- 
tion in  Brussels,  there  are  interesting  official  reports 
dealing  with  the  question  of  creating  a  reliable  native 
force  from  the  most  civilised  of  the  Congolese  tribes. 
The  problem  was  not  without  many  peculiar  diffi- 
culties. Baron  Van  Eetvelde,  whose  lofty  aims  for 
Congolese  civilisation  were  fortified  with  many  wise 
measures  of  great  utility  to  the  Government,  had 


The  Congo  Public  Force  169 

formulated  plans  for  the  establishment  of  a  system 
of  military  conscription,  as  to  which  in  January, 
1897,  he  reported  as  follows: 

The  State  has  set  itself  to  the  task  of  creating  a  purely 
national  army,  with  the  view  of  lightening  the  budget  of  the 
considerable  charges  which  weighed  upon  it  through  having 
to  recruit  abroad,  and  also  with  the  view  of  putting  an  end, 
in  accordance  with  the  highest  dictates  of  policy,  to  its  de- 
pendence in  this  matter  upon  foreigners.  It  considers,  more- 
over, the  period  of  military  service  as  a  salutary  school  for 
the  native,  where  he  will  learn  respect  for  authority  and 
the  obligations  of  duty.  It  is  happy,  from  this  view,  to  see  the 
number  of  national  militiamen  increase,  and,  in  order  that  the 
institution  may  preserve  all  its  value,  special  provisions  have 
been  made  to  prevent  abuses,  to  regulate  the  recruiting,  to 
assure  the  welfare  of  soldiers  on  service,  and  to  provide  occu- 
pation for  those  who  have  served  their  term.  The  decree  on 
the  recruiting  of  the  Public  Force  is  not  more  rigorous  than 
any  other  similar  act  of  legislation,  and  the  incorporation  is 
made  under  as  sure  guarantees  of  -human  liberty  as  in  the 
armies  of  Europe.  As  is  the  case  in  almost  all  countries,  the 
recruiting,  independent  of  voluntary  engagements,  is  made 
by  annual  levies,  but  "within  the  limits  of  the  contingent 
fixed  by  the  King-Sovereign,"  and  within  these  limits  "the 
Governor-General  determines  the  districts  and  localities  in 
which  the  levy  is  to  be  made,  and  also  the  proportion  to  be  fur- 
nished by  each  locality.  .  .  .  The  mode  according  to  which 
the  levy  operates  is  determined  by  the  district  commissary  in 
agreement  with  the  native  chief;  and  although  the  drawing 
by  lot  is  recommended,  we  must  recognise  that  it  would  be 
difficult,  in  the  present  circumstances,  to  have  recourse  always 
and  everywhere  to  this  method  in  each  village,  and  to  refuse  to 
recognise  the  customary  authority  of  the  village  chief,  when  he 
designates  the  militiamen  among  his  own  dependants.  .  .  . 
The  length  of  active  service  is  for  five  years.  At  the  expiration 
of  this  term,  the  men  pass  two  years  in  the  reserve.     The  time 


1 70  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

passed  under  the  colours,  then,  cannot  exceed  seven  years — 
a  term  which  experience  shows  not  to  be  excessive;  and  it  is 
strictly  forbidden  to  keep  under  the  flags  men  who  are  no 
longer  borne  on  the  lists,  or  whose  term  of  service  has  expired, 
under  pain  of  misdemeanour.  These  organic  dispositions  have 
been  completed  by  instructions,  which  prescribe  on  the  officers 
'  to  watch  carefully  that  the  men  receive  a  sufficient  nourish- 
ment, are  comfortably  housed,  that  the  sick  are  well  taken 
care  of,  that  the  men  are  always  properly  treated,  that  their 
misconduct  is  dealt  with  in  conformity  with  the  regulations, 
and  carefully  avoiding  all  excessive  severity.' 

In  fact,  this  system  renders  light  for  the  native  his  obliga- 
tions as  a  soldier.  We  do  not  desire  any  other  proof  than 
those  four  thousand  volunteers  who  are  actually  enrolled,  and 
those  numerous  re-engagements,  which  show  the  taste  of  the 
native  for  the  profession  of  arms.  It  was  not  with  an  army 
of  malcontents  that  the  State  could  have  carried  out  its  anti- 
slavery  campaign.  The  State  continues  to  interest  itself  in  its 
soldiers  after  their  term  has  expired.  The  time-expired  men, 
sent  back  to  their  homes  at  its  expense,  together  with  their 
wives  and  children  (if  there  are  any),  are  the  object  of  special 
protection,  and  receive  concessions  of  land  in  a  station  at 
their  own  choice. 

The  latest  report  of  the  Vice-Govemor-General 
(July,  1904)  indicates  the  great  improvement  to 
which  the  Public  Force  has  attained  since  the  date 
of  Baron  Van  Eetvelde's  statement  of  the  system 
which  prevailed  in  1897.  Local  experience  in  savage 
lands  should  be  the  foundation  of  the  reforms  im- 
posed. In  the  case  of  the  State's  Public  Force,  many 
local  conditions,  traits,  and  prejudices,  and  much 
inaptitude,  were  encountered  to  modify  or  extend 
those  principles  of  police  control  which  the  State's 
earlier  administration  had  adopted  with  character- 
istic hopefulness.     M.  Fuchs  sets  forth  the  present 


Native  Canoes,  Lower  Congo. 


Fishermen,  Uvvia. 


The  Congo  Public  Force  171 

position  of  the  Force  with  considerable  detail  and 
suggestion : 

The  Government  is  aware  that  the  militar}'^  service  of 
the  black  race  must  be  the  object  of  constant  watchfulness, 
in  order  that  it  may  be  impossible  for  them  to  practise  the 
cruelties  to  which  their  primitive  instincts  might  impel 
them. 

The  officers  and  commanders  of  the  troops  have  been  often 
warned  that  they  must  show  themselves  inflexible  guardians 
of  the  observance  of  those  instructions,  which  have  been 
issued  for  the  protection  of  the  natives  against  any  possible 
abuse  on  the  part  of  soldiers  left  in  isolated  positions  or  sub- 
ject to  insufficient  control.  Instructions  have  been  given  to 
this  effect — and  I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  say  that  they  have 
been  almost  evers^where  faithfully  carried  out.  Any  contra- 
vention of  the  order  forbidding  the  despatch  of  armed  soldiers 
under  the  command  of  black  officers  is  also  severely  pun- 
ished, and  may  entail  even  the  dismissal  of  the  agent  in  fault. 
These  measures  have  been  completed  by  the  formal  prohibi- 
tion of  the  employment  of  auxiliaries  under  no  matter  what 
circumstances. 

It  has  also  been  laid  down  that  direct  relations  are  to  be 
established  between  the  natives  and  European  agents.  In 
order  still  further  to  strengthen  the  maintenance  of  discipline 
among  the  soldiers  of  the  black  race,  the  regulations  on  the  sub- 
ject have  been  completed  by  the  penalty  of  dismissal  from  the 
Public  Force.  This  is  the  most  severe  punishment  in  the  eyes 
of  the  soldiers,  for  they  highly  esteem  the  profession  of  arms. 
Dismissal  from  the  Public  Force  is  inflicted  on  those  soldiers 
who  show  themselves  absolutely  incorrigible  or  who  are  un- 
worthy to  remain  in  the  ranks.  In  order  to  surround  this 
rigorous  measure  with  all  the  necessary  guarantees,  the  sol- 
diers whom  it  is  wished  to  dismiss  are  brought  before  a  Coun- 
cil of  Discipline.  The  dismissal  is  pronounced,  at  Boma  by 
the  Commander  of  the  Public  Force;  in  the  districts  by  the 
District  Commissioner  or  by  the  head  of  the  expedition,  after 


172  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

examining  the  charge,  the  evidence,  and  the  decision  of  the 
Council.     Chiefs  of  zones  cannot  pronounce  dismissal. 

The  Government  have  just  finally  decided  that,  for  the 
future,  the  soldiers  of  the  Public  Force  shall  not  take  part  in 
work  at  the  stations,  and  that  their  time  shall  be  exclusively 
given  up  to  their  instruction,  education,  and  military  service. 
The  former  arrangements  which  put  soldiers,  during  some 
hours  of  the  day,  at  the  disposal  of  the  territorial  chiefs, 
chiefs  of  zones,  and  chiefs  of  posts,  over  and  above  the  hours 
assigned  for  military  duty,  have  been  modified  so  as  to  main- 
tain in  a  more  continuous  fashion  the  men  under  the  control 
of  their  officers.  In  order  to  make  this  decision  of  the  Gov- 
ernment as  fruitful  as  possible,  the  territorial  chiefs  have  been 
ordered  to  reduce  to  the  effective  force  strictly  necessary  for  the 
assurance  of  security,  the  garrisons  stationed  at  the  posts  in 
zones  and  districts,  and  to  concentrate  at  the  chief  places  in 
the  territory  garrisons  as  complete  as  possible.  These  meas- 
ures are  intended  to  produce  the  best  results  from  the  point 
of  view  of  educating  and  instructing  the  troops,  as  well  as 
from  that  of  assuring  military  discipline,  provided  the  terri- 
torial chiefs  scrupulously  carry  out  the  new  instructions 
mentioned  above. 

It  has  also  been  pointed  out  to  them  that  it  will  be  ex- 
pressly recommended  to  the  officials  charged  with  the  in- 
spection— and  the  Government  has  decided  to  increase  the 
inspections  throughout  the  State  territories — to  ascertain  if  all 
these  instructions,  concerning  the  execution  of  the  new  table 
of  daily  work  for  the  public  force,  have  been  carried  out. 

The  other  measures  of  organisation  which  have  been  passed, 
the  formal  prohibition  to  establish  posts  commanded  by  black 
officers,  or  to  confide  military  operations  to  them,  and  finally 
forbidding  the  practice  of  taking  sub-officers  from  their  mili- 
tary duties  to  employ  them  as  chiefs  of  stations,  are  of  a 
nature  to  make  us  hope  that  very  soon  our  public  force  will 
constitute  a  body  in  which  we  may  have  complete  confidence. 

In  February,  1904,  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  point  out  to  the 
Government  the  manner  in  which  instruction  was  given  in  the 
camps,  and  to  draw  its  attention  to  the  necessity  that  there 


Uelle  Chief  and  his  Wives,  Van  Kerckhovenville. 


Port  of  Leopoldville.     Natives  at  Work. 


The  Congo  Public  Force  173 

would  be  to  engage  quickly  a  superior  officer  entrusted  more 
especially  with  the  mission  of  seeing  to  the  higher  direction 
and  the  general  control  of  all  the  orders  issued  concerning  the 
Public  Force.  The  Government,  which  had  also  occupied  itself 
with  the  question,  has  confided  this  high  employment  to  a 
superior  officer  who  will  be  entrusted  with  the  command  of 
the  Public  Force. 

The  Government  has  resolved  to  send,  at  the  same  time 
three  or  four  officers  of  the  grade  of  commandant  to  be  at- 
tached to  the  staff  of  the  Public  Force,  and  whom  the  com- 
mander will  be  able  to  appoint  to  exercise  constant  control 
over  the  companies  and  camps. 

It  is  right  to  recall  the  fact  that  military  service  is  so  far 
from  constituting  a  laborious  servitude  for  those  subjected  to 
it,  by  virtue  of  the  organic  law  of  conscription,  that  voluntary 
engagements  increase  from  year  to  year.  Besides,  the  in- 
structions of  the  Government  encourage  this  state  of  mind 
by  improving  the  well-being  of  the  soldier  from  the  triple 
point  of  view  of  habitation,  food,  and  clothing.  And  they 
are  not  only  natives  of  Congolese  territory,  properly  speaking, 
who  seek  there  military  employment;  numerous  Africans 
coming  from  the  English  colonies  of  the  West  Coast  solicit 
engagement  at  Boma. 

The  table  (on  page  174)  of  the  engagements  of  men,  na- 
tives of  the  coast  and  British  subjects,  is  characteristic  in  this 
respect. 

The  multiplicity  of  voluntary  enrolments  will  gradually  re- 
move, from  the  absolutely  indispensable  law  of  conscription, 
what  might  seem  rigorous,  particularly  in  the  eyes  of  people 
not  yet  thoroughly  acquainted  with  civilisation,  and  with  the 
idea  of  the  necessity  of  public  order. 

It  is  nevertheless  important  to  note  that  the  efforts  at- 
tempted with  the  view  of  nationalising  the  police  forces  are  be- 
ing crowned  more  and  more  with  success.  The  State  can  now 
renounce  the  assistance,  elsewhere  advantageous,  of  foreign 
mercenaries,  thanks  to  the  methodical,  extensive,  and  wise 
application  of  the  militia  law,  and  especially  to  the  consider- 
able increase  in  the  number  of  national  volunteers.  But  there 


174  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 


Accra 

Haussas  (Lagos)       | 

Sierra-Leonese 

i2 

(British) 

(British) 

(British) 

>; 

En- 

Re-en- 

En- 

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Offi- 

gaged 

gaged 

Officers 

gaged 

gaged 

Officers 

gaged 

gaged 

cers 

1883 
1884 
1885 

— 

— 

— 

50 
30 
20 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 



— 

— 

— 

2 

— 

— 

— 

1886 

— 

— 

— 

5 

— 

2 

— 

— 

— 

1887 

— 

— 

— 

642 

20 

16 

— 

— 

— 

1888 

— 

— 

— 

300 

5 

17 

— 

— 

— 

iSSg 

— 

— 

— 

10 

5 

4 

204 

— 

— 

1890 

— 

— 

■ — - 

1,200 

53 

12 

— 

— 

— 

1891 

— 

— 

— 

542 

6 

1 1 

9 

— 

— 

1892 

— 

— 

— 

300 

16 

9 

125 

13 

3 

i«93 

192 

— 

3 

450 

13 

9 

790 

3 

9 

1894 

29s 

— 

I 

760 

14 

14 

710 

5 

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1S95 

36 

— 

2 

330 

10 

T  I 

72 

20 

2 

1896 

3 

2 

— 

300 

28 

I  I 

136 

40 

10 

1897 

6 

6 

— 

70 

6 

8 

55 

43 

2 

1898 

8 

13 

3 

200 

1 1 

14 

200 

37 

12 

1899 

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76 

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563 

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II 

5.335 

341 

177 

2.598 

1 

423 

82 

could  be  no  question  of  abandoning  the  system  of  recruiting 
by  means  of  regional  conscription.  It  signifies,  indeed,  that 
all  the  population  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  territory 
participates  in  this  public  charge  as  much  in  the  interests  of 
the  regular  and  permanent  operation  of  the  recruiting  of  the 
national  militia  as  in  that  also  of  the  natives  who  benefit  by 
the  lessons  of  their  military  profession  (a  sense  of  order,  dis- 
cipline, cleanliness,  clothes,  hygiene,  habitation,  &c.).  The 
stay  in  the  ranks  of  the  armed  force  has  as  its  principal  advan- 
tage their  initiation  in  civilised  life,  and  their  preparation  for 
a  regular  life  of  work. 

The  proportion  of  deaths  has  become  very  low  among  the 
blacks  of  the  Public  Force  and  among  the  labourers.  This  is 
due  in  a  great  degree  to  the  improved  conditions  under  which 
our  men  live.  The  lodgment  is  well  aired  and  neatly  kept. 
The  food  is  varied  as  much  as  possible,  and  its  careful  prepara- 


The  Congo  Public  Force  175 

tion  is  provided  for.  The  camps  of  the  soldiers  of  the  PubHc 
Force  are  well  kept  up.  Barracks  constructed  in  stone  with 
cemented  floors  serve  in  the  Lower  Congo  as  lodgment  for 
our  troops.  The  black  officers  have  their  habitation  separate 
from  that  of  their  men. 

In  the  stations  on  the  upper  river  these  prescripts  are  also 
well  followed.  At  Boma  the  creation  of  a  working  city,  con- 
structed of  well-chosen  materials,  is  in  progress. 

It  is  interesting  to  quote  with  regard  to  the  constant  and 
progressive  improvement  in  the  existence  of  the  natives  the 
following  paragraphs  from  the  report  of  Mr.  Casement,  His 
Britannic  Majesty's  Consul: 

"Then  (in  1887)  I  had  visited  most  of  the  places  I  now 
revisited,  and  I  was  thus  able  to  institute  a  comparison  be- 
tween a  state  of  affairs  I  had  myself  seen  when  the  natives 
lived  their  own  savage  lives  in  anarchic  and  disorderly  com- 
munities, uncontrolled  by  Europeans,  and  that  created  by 
more  than  a  decade  of  very  energetic  European  intervention. 
That  very  much  of  this  intervention  has  been  called  for,  no 
one  who  formerly  knew  the  Upper  Congo  could  doubt,  and 
there  are  to-day  widespread  proofs  of  the  great  energy  dis- 
played by  Belgian  officials  in  introducing  their  methods  of 
rule  over  one  of  the  most  savage  regions  of  Africa. 

"Admirably  built  and  admirably  kept  stations  greet  the 
traveller  at  many  points. 

"The  Government  station  of  Leopold ville  numbers,  I  was 
informed  by  its  chief,  some  130  Europeans,  and  probably  300 
native  Government  workmen,  who  all  dwell  in  well-ordered 
lines  of  either  very  well-built  European  houses,  or,  for  tlie 
native  staff,  mud-built  huts. 

"  On  the  whole,  Government  workmen  at  Leopold  ville  struck 
me  as  being  well  cared  for,"  and  they  were  certainly  none  of 
them  idle." 

In  thus  taking  care  of  their  employes  the  agents  have  per- 
formed a  duty  which  has  not  only  resulted  in  the  well-being 
of  the  blacks,  but  has  also  allowed  of  a  reduction  in  tlie  num- 
lier  of  the  workers,  and  accomplisliing  better  and  more  rap- 
idly executed  work. 


176  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

It  will  be  observed  elsewhere  in  this  volume  that 
some  of  those  who  condemn  the  State's  system  of 
government  point  to  the  Force  Publique  as 
feet,  but  the  chief  instrument  by  which  the  Ad- 
Good,  ministration  encompasses  the  enslavement 
of  the  native  population.  There  are  glaring  dis- 
crepancies in  what  such  persons,  either  maliciously 
or  in  ignorance,  represent  as  the  police  system  which 
prevails  in  the  State  at  the  present  time.  There 
does  not  exist  a  police  system  anywhere  in  Europe 
or  Africa  which  has  not  some  inherent  defect.  To 
expect  the  highest  discipline  and  the  utmost  control 
in  a  police  body  composed  of  the  imperfectly  civil- 
ised Negroes  of  Equatorial  Africa  is  only  one  man- 
ifestation of  that  narrow,  imintelligent  outlook  upon 
the  subject  over  which  certain  persons  are  agitating 
themselves  into  suspicious  frenzy.  The  report  of 
M.  Fuchs  denotes  that  the  State's  police  system  is 
foimded  upon  high  principles  of  justice,  that  dis- 
cipline and  order  are  being  maintained  without  the 
abuse  of  power,  and  that,  whatever  individuals  may 
have  done  to  transgress  in  the  sphere  of  their  op- 
portunity, no  such  extravagant  charges  of  mis- 
government  as  a  few  persons  have  made  can  be 
fixed  upon  a  State  with  the  police  laws  above  in- 
dicated. A  million  square  miles  of  savage  territory 
are  governed  with  14,2  7j;^,. natives  enrolled  in  the 
State's  military  service.  This  is  seven  soldiers  to 
about  every  625  square  miles.  Does  this  not  signify 
native  respect  for,  and  tranquillity  in,  the  State? 
What  civilised  community  maintains  its  authority 
with  such  a  meagre  force? 


CHAPTER  XV 
BELGIAN  CAMPAIGNS  AGAINST  THE  ARABS 

IT  had  long  been  foreseen,  as  an  inevitable  result  of 
the  advent  of  the  Belgians  in  Central  Africa, 
that  a  direct  conflict  between  them  and  the 
Arabs,  continued  to  the  extinction  of  one  or  other 
of  the  belligerents,  must  sooner  or  later  take  place. 
The  chief  cause  of  the  presence  of  the  Belgi- 
ans in  the  country  being  the  suppression  of  ^^^^^\!° 
slavery  was  in  itself  sufficient  to  assure  this. 
As  shown  in  the  chapter  dealing  with  that  subject, 
the  Belgian  pioneers  in  establishing  posts  throughout 
the  coimtry  were  guided  chiefly  in  their  selection  of 
sites  by  a  desire  to  obstruct  the  natural  routes  of 
the  slave-traders ;  and  this,  as  we  have  seen,  had  the 
effect  of  frequently  bringing  Belgians  and  Arabs 
into  collision. 

After  the  Belgian  operations  on  the  Uelle  and 
Lualaba,  the  Arabs  became  seriously  alarmed.  They 
perceived  not  only  their  nefarious  method  of  liveli- 
hood at  stake,  but  their  very  existence  as  a  coherent 
fighting  force  was  also  threatened.  In  dread  at 
this  prospect,  the  Arabs  resolved  to  precipitate  mat- 
ters, and  took  the  offensive.  It  is  not  easy  to  see 
what  other  conclusion  they  could  have  reached,  for 
the  Belgians  had  now  concerted  practical  measures 

xa  177 


178  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

which  rendered  their  raids  upon  Negro  villages  no 
longer  possible,  while  such  Negro  chiefs  as  had 
hitherto  been  amenable  to  Arab  influence  had  been 
either  alienated  or  killed  off  in  fair  fight.  A  tax  on 
ivory,  too,  imposed  by  the  Congo  Government  in 
1 89 1,  though  moderate  in  amount  and  perfectly  just 
in  its  incidence,  was  bitterly  resented  by  them.  It 
was  clear,  therefore,  that  the  only  hope  for  the  Arabs 
lay  in  recovering  the  country  which  the  Belgians 
had  wrested  from  them ;  and  as  with  every  day  that 
passed  their  chances  of  doing  this  became  more  re- 
mote, they  resolved  to  stake  all  that  was  left  to  them 
upon  one  desperate  effort. 

The  first  practical  proof  of  this  intention  came 
upon  the  Belgians  somewhat  as  a  surprise.  M. 
Hodister,  acting  on  behalf  of  the  Belgian  Society  of 
the  Upper  Congo,  a  company  of  merchant  adven- 
turers, had  founded  two  stations  on  the  river  Lo- 
mami.  In  this  act,  M.  Hodister  was  held  by  the 
Congo  Administration  to  have  exceeded  the  range  per- 
mitted him.  Lieutenant  Le  Marinel,  the  Belgian  offi- 
cer commanding  that  region,  having  foreseen  danger 
in  pressing  so  closely  upon  the  Arabs,  a  contingency 
with  which  he  was  not  as  yet  prepared  to  deal.  But 
the  opportunity  of  striking  a  blow  afforded  by  Hod- 
ister's  precipitate  act  was  too  inviting  to  be  neg- 
lected, and  the  Arabs  promptly  seized  it.  The  blow 
fell  March  15,  1892,  near  Riba  Riba,  on  the  Congo, 
the  Arabs  murdering  Hodister  and  his  ten  white 
companions.  It  was  not  a  fight ;  it  was  a  massacre. 
Elated  by  their  success,  the  Arabs  next  proceeded 
to  burn  the  factories  belonging  to  the  Belgian  So- 


n 


a, 

a 

ei 
O 


Belgian  Campaigns  against  the  Arabs     179 

ciety  of  the  Upper  Congo,  and  to  kill  their  inmates; 
so  that,  for  the  moment,  the  collapse  of  Belgian 
power  in  that  section  of  the  country  was  complete. 

Another  event  that  occurred  about  this  time 
served  to  emphasise  the  determination  of  the  Arabs. 
Rashid,'  the  Arab  governor  of  Stanley  Falls,  on  be- 
ing invited  by  the  Belgians  to  assist  in  obtaining  the 
punishment  of  the  murderers  of  Hodister  and  his 
companions,  absolutely  refused  to  have  anything  to 
do  with  the  matter,  and  with  difficulty  concealed 
the  satisfaction  he  felt  at  that  tragic  event.  Sefu,  a 
son  of  Tippo  Tip,  began  now  to  realise  his  father's 
property,  an  ominously  significant  act.  On  all  sides 
it  was  felt  that  a  crisis  was  at  hand,  and  Lieut.  Le 
Marinel  prepared  to  meet  it  by  appointing  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  camp  at  Lusambo  Lieut.  Francis  Dhanis, 
an  officer  who  had  distinguished  himself  by  founding 
the  camp  at  Bosoko,  on  the  Aruwimi,  and  in  many 
other  ways  exhibited  uncommon  energy  and  resource. 

Immediately  upon  the  arrival  of  Lieut.  Dhanis 
at  Lusambo,  intelligence  reached  him  that  Gongo 
Lutete  was  on  the  war-path,  seeking  to  pass  the 
Sankuru.  This  Gongo  Lutete  was  a  Negro  chief 
who  had  allied  himself  with  the  Arabs  and  assisted 
them  in  enslaving  his  own  race.  The  following  is  a 
description  of  him  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Sidney  Hindc : 

Gongo  Lutete  was  by  blood  a  Bakussu.  He  had  himself 
been  a  slave,  having  as  a  child  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 

'  A  nephew  of  Hamed-ben-Mohamed,  better  known  as  Tippo  Tip, — 
/.  e.,  "winking  the  eye," — an  Arab  slave  merchant,  invested  with  the 
government  of  Stanley  Falls  by  King  Leopold,  at  the  instance  of 
Stanley,  he  having,  in  consideration  of  a  monthly  salary,  bound  him- 
self to  repress  all  slave-hunting  and  slave-dealing  below  the  Falls. 


i8o         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Arabs.  While  still  a  youth,  as  a  reward  for  his  distinguished 
conduct  and  pluck  on  raiding  expeditions,  he  was  given  his 
freedom.  Starting  with  one  gun  at  eighteen  years  of  age,  he 
gradually  collected  a  band  of  brigands  round  him,  whom  he 
ruled  with  a  rod  of  iron,  and  before  long  became  Tippo  Tip's 
chief  slave  and  ivory  hunter.  At  the  time  of  his  adhesion  to 
the  State,  Gongo  was  perhaps  thirty  years  of  age.  He  was  a 
well-built,  intelligent-looking  man  of  about  five  feet  nine 
inches  in  height,  with  a  brown  skin,  large  brown  eyes  with 
very  long  lashes,  a  small  mouth  with  thin  lips,  and  a  straight 
comparatively  narrow  nose.  His  hands  were  his  most  re- 
markable characteristic;  they  were  curiously  supple,  with 
long  narrow  fingers,  which  when  outstretched  had  always  the 
top  joint  slightly  turned  back.  One  or  both  hands  were  in 
constant  movement,  opening  and  shutting  restlessly,  especiall}- 
when  he  was  under  any  strong  influence.  His  features  mean- 
while remained  absolutely  immovable.  One  had  to  see  this 
man  on  the  war-path  to  realise  the  different  aspects  of  his 
character.  The  calm,  haughty  chief,  or  the  genial  and 
friendly  companion,  became  on  the  battlefield  an  enthusiastic 
individual  with  a  highly  nervous  organisation,  who  hissed 
out  his  orders  one  after  another  without  a  moment's  hesi- 
tation. He  was  capable  of  sustaining  intense  fatigue,  and 
would  lead  his  warriors  through  the  country  at  a  run  for 
hours  together. 

With  such  a  redoubtable  fighter  as  Gongo  Lutete 
to  contend  with,  it  was  clear  to  Lieut.  Dhanis  that 
no  time  must  be  lost.  Believing,  with  von  Moltke, 
that  the  best  defence  against  your  enemy  is  to  at- 
tack him,  Dhanis  moved  against  Lutete  without 
delay,  and  brought  him  to  battle  on  the  23d  of  April, 
and  again  on  the  5th  and  9th  of  May.  The  first  two 
engagements  were  undecisive.  The  third  proved  a 
hard  fight.  At  first  the  fortunes  of  the  day  were  all 
in  favour  of  the  Arabs;    and  when  his  native  aux- 


Jd 


Belgian  Campaigns  against  the  Arabs    i8i 

iliaries  turned  and  fled  it  seemed  impossible  for 
Lieut.  Dhanis  to  gain  the  victory.  But  that  very 
circumstance,  so  disconcerting  in  itself,  saved  the 
Belgians.  As  the  Arabs  advanced,  they  shouted: 
"Do  not  fire!  These  are  natives;  make  them  pris- 
oners." It  was  a  fatal  command.  The  Belgians 
rallied,  and  received  their  foes  with  such  a  tremend- 
ous fusillade  that  they  were  thrown  into  confusion 
and  took  refuge  in  flight.  Gongo  Lutete  surrendered 
unconditionally  to  Lieut.  Dhanis,  and  professed 
himself  henceforth  a  faithful  vassal  of  the  Congo 
State.  He  was  an  able  man,  probably  the  most  in- 
telligent of  the  Negro  race  in  the  country,  and  cer- 
tainly the  best  acquainted  with  the  wily  Arab  and 
his  ways;  so,  after  some  hesitation,  his  overtures  of 
friendship  were  accepted.  The  force  which  Gongo 
Lutete  had  commanded  being  now  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Belgians,  its  first  employment  under  its  new 
masters  was  the  establishment  of  a  new  post  on  the 
Lomami,  at  Gandu,  on  the  route  to  Nyangwe  and 
Kassongo. 

Meanwhile  Sefu,  son  of  Tippo  Tip,  had  not  been 
inactive.  With  cunning  worthy  of  his  father,  he 
had  no  sooner  returned  from  Stanley  Falls  ^rab 

to  Kassongo  than  he  made  war  upon  the  Treach- 
station  there  and  seized  it.     Two  Belgian  ^^^' 

officers,  Lieutenants  Lippens  and  De  Bruyn,  were 
also  captured  by  him,  to  whom  he  confided  the 
comforting  assurance  that  he  only  refrained  from 
putting  them  to  death  because  he  hoped  to  find 
them  useful  as  hostages  in  his  negotiations  with  the 
Congo  Government.     Sefu  had  for  his  ally  Munic 


1 82  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Moharra,  chief  of  Manyema,  a  powerful  Arab  leader. 
Between  them  they  raised  a  formidable  force, 
which  they  hastened  to  employ  against  the  Bel- 
gians. Before  doing  so,  however,  they  stated  the 
terms  upon  which  they  would  make  peace.  As 
these  terms  included,  among  other  provisions,  hand- 
ing over  to  them  Gongo  Lutete  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  new  frontier  to  be  indicated  by  them, 
there  was  really  nothing  for  the  Belgians  to  con- 
sider. Their  terms  being,  of  course,  refused,  the 
Arabs  marched  from  Nyangwe  and  Kassongo  in  the 
direction  of  the  Lomami.  Their  exact  numbers  are 
not  known;  but  notwithstanding  the  defection  of 
Gongo  Lutete  and  his  following,  it  is  certain  that 
they  were  very  numerous. 

The  force  at  the  disposal  of  Lieut.  Dhanis,  though 
not  so  great  as  that  of  the  Arabs,  was  yet  a  con- 
siderable one.  His  staff  consisted  of  seven  Euro- 
peans, and  he  had  three  hundred  and  fifty  regular 
troops  and  one  7-5  Krupp  gun.  The  command  of 
the  troops  acquired  by  Gongo  Lutete 's  defection 
from  the  Arabs,  numbering  several  thousands,  was 
entrusted  to  Captain  Michaux,  with  Lieut.  Duchesne 
second  in  command.  The  Arabs  having  crossed  the 
Lomami  at  a  lower  point  than  where  they  had  been 
expected,  were  met  by  Captain  Michaux  and  Gongo 
Lutete  at  Chige,  and  a  battle  ensued.  The  Arabs 
numbered  sixteen  thousand  men,  not  more  than 
half  of  whom  were  armed  with  muskets,  the  rest 
carrying  bows  and  spears.  Lutete  having  com- 
plained that  his  men  could  not  fight  because  their 
guns  had  become  wet  with  the  rain,  Michaux,  know- 


Belgian  Campaigns  against  the  Arabs    183 

ing  that  the  Arabs  must  be  labouring  under  a  like 
difficulty,  ordered  a  general  attack.  His  men  re- 
sponded nobly  and  a  fierce  fight  ensued,  but  it  was 
of  brief  duration.  Perceiving  that  they  were  out- 
generalled,  the  Arabs  became  confused  and  rushed 
madly  into  the  river  which  they  had  recently  been 
at  so  much  pains  to  cross,  only  to  find  that  retreat 
was  impossible.  In  that  situation  they  were  shot 
down  in  great  numbers.  Twelve  hundred  Arabs 
were  drowned,  more  than  half  that  number  lay  dead 
upon  the  battle-field,  and  nearly  a  thousand  prisoners 
were  captured,  together  with  a  large  quantity  of 
war  material.  Thus  opened  the  Arab  campaign  on 
November  23,  1892,  with  the  battle  of  Chige. 

Having  re-formed  his  forces,  Lieut.  Dhanis  now 
crossed  the  Lomami,  determined  to  carry  the  war 
into  the  enemy's  stronghold.  His  army,  which  had 
been  reinforced,  was  now  quite  a  large  one,  num- 
bering six  Belgian  officers,  four  hundred  regulars, 
and  twenty -five  thousand  natives,  the  latter  being 
commanded  in  detail  by  their  own  chiefs.  Lieut. 
Scherlink  and  Dr.  Hinde  commanded  the  advance 
guard.  Michaux  and  Gongo  Lutete  marched  to- 
gether, and  joined  forces  with  Scherlink  and  Hinde 
at  Lusana.  On  the  route,  several  Negro  chiefs  made 
their  submission  and  strengthened  the  force  with 
men  and  provisions. 

On  reaching  Lusana,  the  Belgian  leaders  learned 
with  deep  regret  that  Sefu,  son  of  Tippo  Tip,  had  put 
to  death  their  brave  comrades,  De  Bruyn  a  Triple 
and  Lippens,  and  that  he  had  also  exe-  Tragedy, 
cuted  a  native  who  had  endeavoured  to  save  them. 


1 84  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

in  circumstances  at  once  pathetic  and  heroic.  Sefu, 
it  now  appeared,  accompanied  by  Munie  Moharra, 
was  hurrying  to  attack  Dhanis,  and  the  latter  in- 
structed Lieutenants  Delcommune  and  Francqui, 
then  just  returned  from  Katanga,  to  intercept  him 
if  possible. 

But  the  second  battle  of  the  campaign  was  to  be 
fought  by  Dhanis'  force.  It  took  place  on  Decem- 
ber 30th,  and  opened  inauspiciously  for  the  Belgians, 
Gongo  Lutete's  men  being  defeated  and  dispersed. 
Fortunately  they  formed  only  the  advanced  guard, 
and  on  Dhanis  and  Michaux  coming  up  the  fortune 
of  the  day  changed.  Dhanis  confined  his  energies 
to  a  frontal  attack,  while  Michaux  assailed  the  Arabs' 
flank.  What  Lutete's  irregulars  had  been  imable 
to  do,  the  Belgians  accomplished — but  not  easily. 
Part  of  the  battle  was  fought  in  a  swamp. 

The  Belgians  displayed  great  courage  imder  ex- 
traordinary difficulties,  and  continued  the  fight  until 
the  Arabs  broke  and  fled.  The  honours  of  the  day 
rested  with  the  Krupp  gun,  which  killed  many  and 
frightened  more.  The  Arabs  left  two  hundred  men 
dead  on  the  field,  the  Congo  State  only  eighty,  in 
which  number  is  included  the  wounded.  When  the 
Belgians  captured  their  enemies'  camp,  it  was  found 
that  they  had  slain  their  own  women,  that  being  the 
barbarous  custom  of  the  Arabs  to  which  they  resort 
whenever  there  is  danger  of  their  women  being  made 
prisoners  of  war. 

Immediately  after  this  battle,  the  Congo  State 
force  crossed  the  Mwadi  to  a  plateau  known  as  the 
Gois  Kapopa,   and,   having  set  up  a  camp  there. 


"'^w^ 


^ 


t' 


o 


Belgian  Campaigns  against  the  Arabs     185 

rested  for  a  week.  At  the  end  of  that  period  in- 
teUigence  reached  Lieutenant  Dhanis  that  Sefu  had 
gathered  about  him  a  vast  following  and  was  again 
threatening  trouble.  Slightly  counteracting  the  dan- 
ger this  implied,  the  same  messenger  also  annoimced 
that,  by  order  of  Lieutenant  Delcommune,  Lieuten- 
ant Cassart,  with  a  numerous  body  of  men,  was  then 
on  his  way  to  join  Dhanis. 

Cassart  came,  as  announced,  but  met  with  a 
desperate  adventure  by  the  way.  He  had  been 
entrusted  to  bring  to  Dhanis  fifty  thousand  car- 
tridges, and  was  provided  with  an  escort  of  thirty 
European  soldiers  and  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
of  Gongo  Lutete's  men.  All  went  well  with  him 
until  dawn  of  January  9,  1893,  when  he  was  suddenly 
attacked  by  Moharra.  A  short,  sharp  fight  ensued, 
as  a  result  of  which  Cassart  contrived  to  reach 
Dhanis'  camp  with  a  loss  of  only  seven  men;  he 
also  saved  his  cartridges,  all  but  the  five  thousand 
or  so  that  he  had  used  during  the  fight. 

The  conflict  between  Moharra  and  Cassart  oc- 
curred not  far  from  the  Belgian  camp  and  was  heard 
there,  whereupon  Dhanis  sent  a  detachment  of  his 
men  under  Lieutenant  De  Wouters  to  join  Cassart. 
De  Wouters  failed  to  effect  his  object ;  but  he  came 
upon  a  portion  of  Moharra's  men,  who  mistook  his 
force  for  a  contingent  from  Sefu  coming  to  their  aid. 
When  within  twenty  yards  of  the  Arabs,  De  Wouters 
undeceived  them  by  opening  a  terrific  fire  upon 
them.  At  the  first  volley  Moharra  fell  dead.  He 
had  been  wounded  in  his  fight  with  Cassart,  and 
was  being  carried  by  his  wives  when  he  met  his  fate. 


i86         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The   manner   in    which    the   news   of   Moharra's 
death  was  conveyed  to  Sefu  is  a  sufficiently  strik- 
ing proof   of  the   debased   savagery   with 
A  Cannibal  ^yj^j^^j^  ^]^g   Belgian  civilisers  have  had  to 

Feast.  ^  ,j 

contend.     They  "broke  the  news  gently 
to  him,  thus:  "We  ate  Moharra  a  few  days  ago." 

The  death  of  Moharra  and  defeat  of  his  troops  so 
upset  Sefu's  calculations  that  he  immediately  aban- 
doned his  strong  camp  on  the  Kipango,  and  betook 
himself  and  his  followers  behind  the  Lualaba,  on 
Nyangwe.  But  for  the  unfortunate  breaking  of  a 
bridge,  Dhanis  would  have  attacked  him  in  his  re- 
treat. In  consequence  of  that  accident,  Sefu  was 
enabled  to  cross  the  river  without  molestation. 
Dhanis,  having  no  canoes,  could  not  come  up  with 
him;  so  the  two  forces  settled  down  on  either  side 
of  the  river  for  five  weeks  and  occasionally  exchanged 
harmless  shots. 

The  canoes  in  which  the  Arabs  had  crossed  the 
river  belonged  to  the  Wagenia,  a  tribe  who  made 
their  home  hereabouts  and  who  lived  chiefly  by  fish- 
ing. Nearly  all  their  canoes  were  now  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Arabs,  who  evinced  no  disposition  to 
part  from  them.  Dhanis  exerted  all  his  wit  to  induce 
the  Wagenia  to  provide  him  with  canoes,  but  they 
cither  could  not  or  would  not.  Professing  friendship 
for  both  belligerents,  and  ready  at  all  times  to  take 
bribes  from  each,  they  proved  useful  go-betweens. 
One  day  the  Wagenia  reported  that  the  store  of  pro- 
visions in  Nyangwe  was  almost  exhausted.  ' '  Here, ' ' 
said  Dhanis  to  his  informant,  "take  these  six  fowls 
to  Sefu  and  present  them  to  him  from  me.     Tell 


Soldiers'  Mess,  Suruango,  1903  (Uelle). 


Soldiers'  Wives,  Bumba. 


Belgian  Campaigns  against  the  Arabs    187 

him  that  at  present  I  have  plenty,  but  when  my 
supply  runs  out  I  will  cross  the  river."  This  message 
deceived  Sefu,  as  it  was  intended  to  do.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  six  fowls  were  the  only  ones  Dhanis  had 
in  his  camp.  The  effect  of  this  strategem  was  per- 
ceived before  many  days,  the  Arabs  coming  over  to 
the  western  side  of  the  river,  where  they  began  to 
build  forts,  or  "bomas,"  as  they  call  them,  a  short 
distance  below  the  Belgian  camp.  Dhanis  resolved 
to  attack  them  at  once,  and  with  this  object  divided 
his  force  into  two  columns.  The  engagement  that 
ensued  proved  a  complete  triumph  for  the  State 
troops.  The  Arabs  lost  nearly  a  thousand  men, 
many  being  drowned  in  an  attempt  to  swim  across 
the  river.  The  Wagenia,  anxious  to  ally  themselves 
with  the  winning  side,  hastened  to  produce  canoes  in 
abundance.  Dhanis  was  now  able  to  transport  his 
troops  across  the  Upper  Congo,  and,  that  object 
achieved,  he  captured  Nyangwe  almost  without  an 
effort,  Sefu  retreating  to  Kassongo  without  firing  a 
shot.     This  event  occurred  on  4th  March,  1893. 

Though  Dhanis  was  now  master  of  Nyangwe,  his 
difficulties  were  not  all  surmounted.  He  had  not 
been  installed  there  many  days  before  it  became 
necessary  to  bum  down  a  large  part  of  the  town  in 
order  to  frustrate  an  attempt  by  the  Arabs  to  sur- 
prise it.  Then  other  and  worse  dangers  threatened. 
Influenza  and  smallpox  broke  out  among  his  men  and 
decimated  them.  No  active  prosecution  of  the  cam- 
paign was  possible  until  April,  when  these  plagues 
abated  and  reinforcements,  five  hundred  strong,  under 
Commandant Gillain  and  Lieutenant  Doorme,  arrived. 


1 88  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Leaving  De  Wouters  in  command  at  Nyangwe, 
Dhanis  now  marched  on  Kassongo.  It  was  a  bold 
Civilisation  Venture,  for  while  the  Arabs  had  sixty 
Trium-  thousand  men,  and  held  four  "bomas," 
phant.  Dhanis  disposed  of  only  three  hundred 
regular  troops  and  two  thousand  auxiliaries.  On 
April  22,  Doorme  had  the  good  fortune,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fight,  to  rush  an  important  fort  which 
commanded  the  Arab  rear.  The  Arabs  were  greatly 
perturbed  by  this  circumstance,  and  fought  with 
less  than  their  usual  valour.  Before  two  hours  had 
passed,  Kassongo  was  in  the  hands  of  the^  Congo 
State  troops,  with  vast  quantities  of  valuable  spoil. 
The  triumph  of  civilisation  over  savagery  was  com- 
plete, the  only  jarring  note  in  Belgian  ears  being 
confirmation  of  the  murder  of  Emin  Pasha  a  month 
before.^ 

^  For  amplified  accounts  of  the  Arab  wars,  see  The  Congo  State,  by 
D.  C.  Boulger;  Le  mouvement  geographique,  by  A.  J.  Wauters,  1884- 
1898;  Rapport  de  Baron  Dhanis  sur  la  campagne  arabe  dans  le  Man- 
yema,  1895;   The  Fall  of  the  Congo  Arabs,  by  Dr.  Sidney  L.  Hinde. 


Hospital,  New  Antwerp. 


The  White  Man's  Cemetery,  Stanleyville. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

BELGIAN  CAMPAIGNS  AGAINST  THE  ARABS 
{Concluded) 

WHILE  the  events  described  in  the  preceding 
chapter  were  being  enacted,  M.  Tobback, 
Resident  for  the  Congo  Free  State  at  Stan- 
ley Falls,  with  his  second  in  command,  Lieutenant 
Van  Lindt,  and  a  small  force,  occupied  a  position  of 
imminent  danger.  Rashid,  a  nephew  of 
Tippo  Tip  and  cousin  to  Sefu,  was  installed  ^  ^^^^ 
there.  This  arch-traitor,  while  professing 
the  utmost  friendship  for  the  State  authorities,  and 
accepting  favours  at  the  hands  of  Belgian  officers, 
was  really  a  confederate  of  the  Arabs.  His  character, 
which  had  long  been  suspected,  appeared  unmis- 
takably from  evidence  discovered  by  Lieutenant 
Dhanis  at  Kassongo,  when  that  place  was  captured 
by  the  State  troops.  On  May  1 3th,  immediately  after 
he  had  been  informed  of  the  fall  of  Kassongo,  Rashid 
openly  attacked  the  State  garrison.  A  fierce  fight 
ensued,  in  which  three  of  Tobback's  men  were  killed 
and  seven  wounded.  Nearly  a  hundred  of  Rashid's 
men  were  placed  hors  de  combat;  but  he  was  better 
able  to  stand  the  loss  than  Tobback  was  his.  Four 
days  the  struggle  continued  with  varying  fortune, 
but  on  the  fifth  day  it  became  evident  to  Tobback 

t89 


190  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

that  it  was  impossible  for  him,  with  the  handful  of 
men  at  his  disposal,  to  successfully  resist  the  large 
force  operating  against  him.  He  was  perfecting  his 
plans  for  the  evacuation  of  the  station,  and  had  pre- 
pared six  large  canoes,  when  the  whole  situation 
changed  by  the .  opportune  arrival  of  Commandant 
Chaltin.  The  presence  of  this  officer,  and  the  State 
troops  that  accompanied  him,  justified  the  experi- 
ment of  an  attack  upon  the  Arabs,  which  proved 
entirely  successful.  The  State  troops  captured  all 
the  Arab  positions,  and  took  fifteen  hundred  pris- 
oners, Rashid  himself  escaping  capture  in  ignomin- 
ious flight. 

At  this  juncture  the  Congo  State  officers  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  Arab  power  was  effectually 
broken,  and  they  did  not  anticipate  further  trouble 
with  the  slave-traders  beyond,  possibly,  an  occa- 
sional skirmish.  The  State's  progress  in  its  cam- 
paign against  the  Arabs  had,  on  the  whole,  been 
extremely  successful,  and  its  Sovereign  had  good 
reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the  work  accomplished. 
When,  in  June,  1893,  Captain  Ponthier  came  up  the 
Congo  with  reinforcements  for  Dhanis,  that  event 
seemed  to  give  emphasis  to  this  optimistic  view. 
Certainly  it  so  alarmed  Sefu  that  he  abandoned  the 
struggle  and  fled  to  German  territory. 

Immediately  after  the  flight  of  Sefu  a  painful  in- 
cident occurred  which  greatly  embarrassed  the  Congo 
A  Fatal  State  authorities.  A  Belgian  officer,  hav- 
Biunder.  jj^g  come  to  the  groundless  opinion  that 
Gongo  Lutete  was  a  traitor,  ordered  him  to  be  court- 
martialled  and  shot.     It  was  a  disastrous  event,  not 


PQ 


Belgian  Campaigns  against  the  Arabs    191 

only  wrong  in  itself,  but  alienating  from  the  State 
the  affection  of  Gongo's  men,  and  affording  its 
enemies  in  Europe  an  opportunity  of  reviling  the 
Congo  Administration;  a  libel  which,  though  it  has 
been  many  times  refuted,  they  still  industriously 
disseminate. 

It  soon  became  evident  that  May,  1893,  was  not 
to  be  recorded  in  history  as  the  month  in  which 
slave-trading  Arabs  had  been  finally  re-  a  New 
pressed.  A  chief  belonging  to  Ujiji,  named  Enemy 
Rumeliza,  with  a  considerable  force  of  ppears. 
Arabs,  now  appeared  east  of  Tanganyika.  Having 
penetrated  as  far  as  Kabambari,  midway  between 
Kassongo  and  the  lake,  he  encamped  there,  and  ex- 
plained his  presence  by  avowing  his  intention  to 
reconquer  Manyema. 

Rumeliza 's  following  was  so  numerous  and  so  well 
equipped  that  October  had  arrived  before  Captain 
(for  such  he  had  recently  become)  Dhanis  thought 
it  expedient  to  move  against  him.  When  he  did  take 
the  field,  his  force  consisted  of  five  officers  (of  whom 
Ponthier  was  one),  about  four  hundred  regulars,  and 
three  hundred  auxiliaries;  and  they  had  with  them 
the  Krupp  gun  which  had  served  them  so  well  in 
many  a  battle.  Unfortunately,  ammunition  for  it 
was  all  but  exhausted. 

On  reaching  the  Arabs'  camp  at  Mwana  Mkwanga, 
they  were  found  to  be  very  advantageously  placed 
in  two  large,  well-built  bomas."     The  first  efforts  to 

'  The  following  description  of  a  boma  is  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Hinde : 

"An  Arab  force  on  the  march  employs  a  large  number  of  its  slaves 

in  cutting  down  and  carrying  with  them  trees  and    saplings,   from 

about  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  in  length  and  up  to  six  feet  in  diameter. 


192  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

dislodge  them  met  with  no  success.  The  Krupp  gun 
proved  of  very  Httle  service.  Of  the  scanty  supply 
of  ammunition,  a  large  portion  was  wasted  by  the 
native  troops  through  lack  of  skill  in  manipulating 
the  gun,  and  finally  they  abandoned  it,  after  which 
it  was  worked  by  European  officers  who  could  be 
ill  spared  for  the  duty.  When  one  of  his  officers, 
De  Lange,  fell  woimded,  Captain  Dhanis  decided 
to  retire,  and  a  position  was  taken  up  scarcely  in- 
ferior to  that  held  by  the  Arabs. 

Emboldened  by  what  they  erroneously  regarded 

As  soon  as  a  halting  place  has  been  fixed  on,  the  slaves  plant  this 
timber  in  a  circle  of  about  fifty  yards  in  diameter,  inside  which  the 
chiefs  and  officers  establish  themselves.  A  trench  is  then  dug,  and 
the  earth  thrown  up  against  the  palisades,  in  which  banana  stalks, 
pointing  in  different  directions,  are  laid.  Round  the  centre,  and  fol- 
lowing the  inequalities  of  the  ground,  a  second  line  of  stakes  is  planted, 
this  second  circle  being  perhaps  three  or  four  hundred  yards  in  diameter. 
Another  trench  is  then  dug  in  the  same  way,  with  bananas  planted  as 
before  in  the  earthwork.  The  interval  between  the  two  lines  of  forti- 
fications is  occupied  by  the  troops.  If  the  boma  is  only  to  be  occupied 
for  two  or  three  days,  this  is  all  that  is  usually  done  to  it;  but  if  it  is 
intended  for  a  longer  stay,  a  trench  is  dug  outside  the  palisades.  The 
object  of  using  banana  stalks  in  this  way  is  ingenious.  Within  four 
or  five  hours  they  shrink,  and  on  being  withdrawn  from  the  earth 
leave  loopholes,  through  which  the  defenders  can  fire  without  exposing 
themselves.  Little  huts  are  built  all  over  the  interior  of  the  fort,  and 
these  huts  are  also  very  ingeniously  devised,  and  are,  furthermore, 
bombproof.  They  consist  of  a  hole  dug  a  yard  and  a  half  deep  and 
covered  with  wood.  This  wood  forms  a  ceiling,  over  which  the  earth 
from  the  interior  is  placed  to  the  depth  of  a  couple  of  feet,  and  a 
thatched  roof  placed  over  all  to  keep  off  the  rain.  In  many  of  the 
bomas  we  found  that  the  defenders  had  dug  holes  from  the  main 
trenches  outwards,  in  which  they  lived,  having  lined  them  with  straw. 
The  whole  fort  is  often  divided  into  four  or  more  sections  by  a  palisade 
and  trenches,  so  that,  if  one  part  of  it  is  stormed,  the  storming  party 
finds  itself  in  a  cross  fire — a  worse  position  than  when  actually  trying 
to  effect  an  entrance.  We  found  that  the  shells  from  the  7.5  Krupps 
did  little  or  no  damage  to  these  forts." 


Post  Office  on  River  Bank,  Boma. 


Office  of  Secretary-General,  Boma. 


Belgian  Campaigns  against  the  Arabs    193 

as  a  great  victory,  the  Arabs  lost  no  time  in  attacking 
the  State  camp.  But  this  time  the  tables  were 
turned,  and  they  were  repulsed  with  heavy  loss. 
The  arrival  of  reinforcements  from  Kassongo  con- 
tributed to  this  result;  but  in  consequence  of  some 
error,  Kassongo  was  left  without  sufficient  guard. 
This  fact  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Arabs, 
they  hastened  to  take  advantage  of  it.  To  avert 
this  calamity,  De  Wouters,  by  order  of  Captain 
Dhanis,  marched  night  and  day,  through  a  violent 
storm,  and  effectually  intercepted  them.  Not  a  day 
passed  without  a  fight,  victory  inclining  first  to  one 
and  then  to  the  other  belligerent.  On  the  whole, 
the  Congo  State  troops  continued  to  hold  their  own 
fairly  well  against  great  odds.  Wearying  of  the 
protracted  struggle,  the  Arabs  decided  to  make  a 
desperate  attack  in  full  force  upon  the  State  camp. 
They  selected  a  foggy  day  on  which  to  make  their 
assault,  and  were  greatly  aided  thereby.  At  first 
they  succeeded  so  well  that  they  actually  entered 
the  State  camp  and  engaged  the  Congo  troops  in  a 
hand-to-hand  combat.  The  struggle  lasted  five 
hours.  The  State  troops  lost  fifty  men,  including 
the  brave  Captain  Ponthier,  notwithstanding  which 
they  succeeded  in  completely  repulsing  the  Arabs, 
whom  they  chased  right  up  to  Rumaliza's  boma. 
The  Arab  losses  were  far  heavier  than  the  State's. 
Captain  Dhanis  had  every  reason  to  be  satisfied. 
Leaving  De  Wouters  in  active  command,  he  now 
returned  to  Kassongo  to  reorganise. 

After  the  departure  of  Dhanis,  De  Wouters  con- 
tinued the  aggressive  policy  of  his  chief.    In  attacking 


194  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  boma  of  Lubukine,  Lieutenant  De  Heusch  was 
killed,  and  so  hot  was  the  fight  that  his  men  fled. 
De  Wouters  lost  five  men  killed  (including  De 
Heusch)  and  ten  wounded;  but  the  Arab  loss  was 
far  heavier,  and  included  Sefu,  the  son  of  Tippo  Tip, 
who  had  returned  from  German  territory  and  was 
pursuing  his  old  courses. 

It  was  not  until  nearly  the  end  of  December  that 
Dhanis  was  again  strong  enough  to  take  the  offen- 
sive. By  that  time  his  troops  had  been  rested  and 
reinforced.  They  were  none  too  early  in  taking  the 
field,  for  information  now  came  to  hand  that  Rashid 
had  rallied  his  forces  after  their  defeat  at  Stanley 
Falls  and  was  hastening  to  join  Rumeliza. 

To  deal  with  this  combination,  Dhanis  despatched 
Commandant  Gillain  with  one  hundred  and  eighty 
soldiers  and  two  hundred  auxiliaries  to  cut  off  Rume- 
liza's  retreat,  while  De  Wouters  attacked  Rumeliza's 
great  boma  at  Bena  Kaltmga,  Dhanis,  with  two 
Krupp  guns,  personally  commanding  the  reserve. 
Rumeliza's  boma  proved  impregnable,  the  Krupp 
gims  failing  to  injure  it,  and  news  arrived  that  fresh 
forces  were  on  their  way  from  Tanganyika  to  aid 
Rumeliza. 

Matters  stood  badly  for  the  State  when  the  op- 
portune arrival  of  Commandant  Lothaire,  with  three 
hundred  men,  changed  the  outlook  entirely.  This 
occurred  on  January  9,  1894,  a  day  marked  by 
another  singular  piece  of  good  fortune.  The  boma 
which  had  so  long  defied  the  best  efforts  of  the  be- 
siegers was  set  on  fire  and  destroyed,  a  shot  from  one 
of  the  Krupp  guns  having  blown  up  the  Arab  maga- 


Belgian  Campaigns  against  the  Arabs     195 

zine.  In  their  haste  to  abandon  it,  many  Arabs 
were  shot,  while  others  were  drowned  in  a  desperate 
attempt  to  cross  the  river.  By  cutting  off  their 
water  supply,  the  other  garrisons  were  compelled  to 
surrender,  so  that  within  three  days  over  two  thou- 
sand Arabs  were  taken  prisoners  by  the  State  troops. 

The  Arab  power  was  now  effectually  broken.  To 
break  it  was  an  arduous  task,  expensive  both  in 
blood  and  money,  but  on  the  whole  it  was  conducted 
as  humanely  as  it  is  possible  to  conduct  military 
operations.  The  sufferings  of  the  Europeans  were 
fully  as  great  as,  if  not  greater  than,  the  sufferings 
of  their  enemies.  Proportionate  to  their  numbers, 
their  mortality  was  higher.  More  succumbed  to 
disease  and  the  hardships  of  the  campaign  than  were 
killed  by  the  enemy's  bullets,  among  them  the  gal- 
lant De  Wouters,  who  passed  away  in  the  very  hour 
of  his  triumph. 

The  chief  honours  of  the  Belgian  campaigns  against 
the  Arabs  undoubtedly  rest  upon  Dhanis,  who  had 
exhibited  foresight,  patience,  and  skill  in 
his  every  act.  His  ability  and  success  °°°^^^^^°'" 
were  recognised  by  King  Leopold,  who  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  title  of  Baron.  In  his  final  re- 
port to  King  Leopold  of  the  Arab  campaign,  dated 
December  20,  1894,  Baron  Dhanis  thus  tersely  sums 
up  the  results  of  that  memorable  struggle : 

The  annihilation  of  the  Arab  power  has  brought  about  the 
complete  suppression  of  the  devastating  bands  which,  in  order 
to  procure  slaves,  had  been  ravaging  the  country  with  fire 
and  sword,  from  the  Uelle  in  the  north  down  to  the  Sankura 
in  the  south.     With  them  the  slave  trade  disappears  from  the 


196  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

regions  they  exploited,  and  very  soon,  we  may  hope,  it  will 
no  longer  exist  in  the  Congo  State.  The  native  chiefs  who 
have  submitted  have  been  reinstated  in  authority ;  others  who 
have  disappeared  have  been  replaced  by  intelligent  soldiers  of 
the  State ;  and  some  of  the  Arabs,  who  made  their  submission, 
have  been  left  in  enjoyment  of  their  possessions.  All  have 
been  disarmed  and  warned  that  their  authority  must  be 
exercised  under  the  direction  of  the  State's  agents,  who  are 
charged  with  the  pacific  settlement  of  any  differences  that  may 
arise.  .  .  Large  camps  will  be  formed  at  Kassongo  and 
Kabambari,  and  the  numerous  soldiers  instructed  there  will 
form  the  nucleus  of  the  national  army.  From  this  point  of 
view  the  Arab  campaign  has  forcibly  shown  that  the  natives 
of  the  various  districts  of  the  Congo  are  in  no  way  inferior  as 
soldiers  to  the  blacks  of  the  coast,  who  are  most  famous  for 
their  bravery.  The  Baluba  and  others  trained  and  led  by 
Lieut.  Doorme,  the  Bangala  under  Captain  Lothaire,  etc., 
have  been  admirable.  In  the  near  future  we  may  expect  that 
it  will  no  longer  be  necessary  to  recruit  soldiers  abroad  at 
great  expense.  The  country  will  mainly  supply  its  own  re- 
quirements, and  the  Manyema  will  be  of  great  importance, 
alike  from  the  number  of  men  they  can  furnish  and  from  the 
special  aptitude  of  these  men  to  the  profession  of  arms. 


Office  of  Director  of  Transport,  Boma. 


Bishop's  Palace,  Mission  of  Our  Lady  of  M'  Pala  (Tanganyika). 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  SUPPRESSION  OF  SLAVERY 

IT  is  an  old  world- truth,  supported  by  countless 
historical  instances,  that  the  way  of  the  reformer 
is  hard.  When  his  progress  is  not  opposed  by 
vested  interests,  his  enthusiasm  is  regarded  with 
chilling  indifference.  However  just  his  cause,  he 
may  safely  count  upon  numerous  oppon-  -jj^g  worid 
ents,  every  one  a  giant.  Even  when  he  has  Conserva- 
succeeded  in  establishing  a  clear  case  for  *^^®' 

reform,  he  is  merely  set  free  from  one  set  of  diih- 
culties  in  order  to  confront  other,  and  generally 
more  formidable,  obstacles. 

When  it  first  became  known  to  the  world  that  his 
Majesty  Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  had 
seriously  determined  to  suppress  the  slave  trade  in 
Central  Africa,  the  news  provoked  but  little  com- 
ment. "Is  there  any  slave  trade  carried  on  in  Central 
Africa?"  people  asked  one  another — for  notwith- 
standing the  wide  dissemination  of  records  of  travel 
by  Livingstone  and  Stanley,  and  the  numerous  re- 
ports from  missionaries  belonging  to  every  religious 
sect,  all  affirming  it,  the  great  bulk  of  civilised  man- 
kind, too  busy  to  regard  them,  rested  content  in  the 
delusion  that  the  iniquitous  traffic  was  a  thing  of  the 
past. 

197 


198  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

This  apathy,  if  apathy  it  may  be  called  to  be  in- 
different where  the  facts  are  not  properly  known,  had 
to  be  fought  and  overcome  by  King  Leopold,  first 
among  his  own  countrymen,  and  afterwards  in  the 
other  countries  of  Europe  and  in  America.  By 
many  the  King's  enterprise  was  regarded  as  quixotic, 
impossible  of  achievement ;  some  continued  indiffer- 
ent, and  yet  others  commended  the  King  warmly, 
and  lent  their  moral  support  in  furtherance  of  his 
scheme.  The  material  support,  however,  which  was 
proffered  to  amplify  his  Majesty's  own  huge  outlay 
came  almost  entirely  from  Belgians.  On  the  whole, 
it  was  an  uphill  fight;  but  King  Leopold  won  all 
along  the  line.  As  we  have  seen,  his  Majesty,  by  his 
wise  initiative,  patient  labour,  and  lavish  expendi- 
ture, first  created  the  Congo  State,  and  afterwards 
obtained  from  the  great  powers  their  recognition  of 
the  State  so  created,  and  of  his  own  sovereignty  of 
that  State,  accompanied  by  their  hearty  approval 
of  what  had  from  the  first  been  King  Leopold's  main 
object  in  the  foimding  of  the  Congo  State,  viz.,  the 
suppression  of  slavery. 

It  will  be  noted  that  an  important  epoch  had  now 
been  reached.  King  Leopold's  mandate  was  clear 
jQ  and  irrevocable.     If  it  had  been  an  ardu- 

Leopoid's  ous  Struggle  to  win  that  mandate,  the  effort 
Mandate,  ^ountcd  for  little  when  compared  with  what 
was  needed  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  task  now 
opening  out  before  him.  The  King  of  a  small  State, 
and  with  a  depleted  fortune,  Leopold  11.  had,  as 
materials  for  his  task,  his  own  natural  ability,  the 
righteousness    of   his    cause,    and    the    unswerving 


The  Suppression  of  Slavery  199 

loyalty  of  his  people — three  grand  factors,  it  is  true, 
but  hardly  commensurate  with  its  magnitude.  The 
suppression  of  slavery  in  a  region  a  third  as  large 
as  the  United  States,  populated  by  diverse  and  hos- 
tile tribes,  among  whom  slavery  and  cannibalism  had 
prevailed  from  time  immemorial,  would  have  been 
no  light  undertaking  for  a  missionary  Croesus  with 
a  huge  army  at  his  back.  King  Leopold  was  no  such 
Croesus,  and  his  pioneers  were  few  in  number.  But 
what  they  lacked  in  numbers  they  made  up  in 
geographical  knowledge,  in  bravery,  and  in  tact  in 
their  dealings  both  with  the  Negro  and  his  oppressor, 
the  Arab.  Being  human,  some  few  mistakes  were 
made;  but  they  were  very  few — fewer  than  has 
frequently  marked  the  establishment  of  a  European 
colony  in  countries  where  there  has  been  no  question 
of  slavery  awaiting  solution,  no  cannibalism  to  stamp 
out,  no  climatic  dangers  to  encounter.  When  the 
time  comes  for  King  Leopold  to  be  assigned  his  place 
in  history  as  an  empire  builder,  the  future  historian 
will  probably  designate  as  his  Majesty's  most  bril- 
liant work  his  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  sup- 
pression of  the  slave  trade  in  Central  Africa. 

A  wrong  may  be  persevered  in  until  its  perpetrator 
comes  to  believe  it  is  right.  The  Arab  had  for  so 
many  centuries  harried  the  Negro  race — and,  taking 
advantage  of  their  tribal  disputes,  plundered,  en- 
slaved, and  sold  them,  under  circumstances  of  re- 
volting cruelty — that  he  had  long  ago  grown  to 
regard  the  Negro  as  his  natural  prey,  and  was 
seriously  alarmed  at  the  appearance  in  Congoland 
of  the  white -faced  strangers  with  their  im  welcome 


200         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

creed  of  liberty  for  all  men,  which  they  dreaded  even 
more  than  their  weapons  of  precision.  To  the  Arabs 
this  was  a  strange  doctrine,  inimical,  they  conceived, 
to  their  vital  interests,  and  it  behoved  them  to  resist 
it  to  the  death.  That  their  alarm  was  well  founded 
the  sequel  will  show. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  newly  recognised  Congo 
Free  State  was  to  forbid  trade  in  firearms,  gun- 
Congo  powder,  and  other  explosives.  Another 
Free  State  act  defined  contracts  of  service  between 
*^^'  natives  and  foreigners,  affording  the  former 
special  protection.  A  third  act  created  a  volunteer 
corps  whose  chief  business  it  was  to  protect  indi- 
vidual liberty.  Before  any  aggressive  action,  how- 
ever, could  be  taken  by  this  corps,  the  consent  of  the 
sovereign's  delegate  was  necessary. 

Concurrent  with  these  three  acts,  the  Belgian 
Anti-Slavery  Society  raised  another,  and  quite  dis- 
tinct, volunteer  corps  for  similar  work,  but  restricted 
to  the  neighbourhood  of  Lake  Tanganyika.  In  ad- 
dition, about  this  period  the  same  Society  despatched 
to  Congoland,  in  rapid  succession,  three  expeditions 
of  a  missionary  and  civilising  character.  In  such 
circumstances,  collisions  between  the  Belgians  and 
Arabs  were  inevitable.  During  the  first  few  years 
of  the  existence  of  the  Congo  Free  State  these  col- 
lisions occurred  chiefly  on  the  Upper  Congo  and  its 
tributaries,  the  currents  of  the  interior  slave  trade, 
particularly  those  from  the  eastern  and  southern 
provinces,  being  checked  by  fixed  military  posts  and 
flying  columns.  For  two  years — from  1892  to  1894 
— a  continuous  campaign  was  in  progress,  having 


Various  Mounts,  Lusambo.      (Lualaba-Kassai). 


■Kfi^i  :':J.A  :,  '^'Jf^ 


Cattle,  Luvungy  (Kivu). 


The  Suppression  of  Slavery  201 

for  its  object  the  interception  of  the  slave  caravans 
accustomed  to  come  from  the  south  and  east,  which 
was  entirely  successful.  In  the  vast  territory  known 
by  the  name  of  Lualuba-Kassai,  at  a  time  when  the 
resources  of  the  State  were  unequal  to  the  expense 
of  maintaining  a  Hne  of  posts,,  it  was  usual,  up  to  so 
recently  as  1902,  on  the  appearance  of  a  gang  of 
slave- dealers  to  despatch  a  detachment  of  troops 
from  Lusambo  or  Luluabourg  to  intercept  them. 
Many  engagements  were  thus  brought  about  be- 
tween the  State  volunteers  and  the  slave-dealers. 
Now  military  posts  are  established  on  all  the  prin- 
cipal roads  formerly  used  by  the  slave-traders,  and 
the  barrier  is  complete. 

In  the  north,  Commandant  Chaltin  struck  a  dam- 
aging blow  to  the  Dervishes  in  February,  1897. 
After  traversing  with  his  force  the  whole  of  the  Uelle 
territory,  he  encountered  the  Dervishes  at  Redjaf 
on  the  Nile.  The  place  was  strongly  held  by  four 
thousand  soldiers,  more  than  half  of  whom  were 
armed  with  modem  rifles.  A  severe  battle  ensued, 
lasting  nearly  all  day.  Victory  lay  with  the  Bel- 
gians, the  Dervishes  being  forced  to  evacuate  Redjaf. 
They  accepted  their  beating  badly,  making  several 
attempts  to  retake  the  place,  but  without  success. 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  it  was  in  the  districts  of 
the  Lower  Congo  that  the  slave  trade  was  first 
stamped  out;  that  it  was  next  eradicated  from  the 
Middle  Congo ;  and  finally  extinguished  on  the  Upper 
Congo,  where  Belgian  bravery  and  military  skill 
succeeded  in  effectually  crushing  the  last  vestige  of 
Arab  power. 


202  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  Negro  was  quick  to  respond  to  the  revivify- 
ing influence  of  security  for  Ufa  and  property,  and  his 

rapid  progress  in  civiHsation  may  be  said 
vancement  ^^  ^^^^  from  the  day  when  -this  essential 

primary  condition  was  estabhshed.  From 
a  report  to  King  Leopold  made  by  Baron  Van 
Eetvelde,  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo,  the  following  passage  is  extracted : 

Slowly  but  surely  the  black  is  being  transformed,  his  intel- 
lectual horizon  is  being  enlarged,  his  sentiments  are  being 
refined.  A  thousand  facts,  in  appearance  insignificant,  mark 
the  halting-place  left  behind.  The  black  to-day  has  his  place 
marked  out  where  ten  years  ago  no  one  thought  of  using  him. 
He  is  to  be  seen,  according  to  his  aptitude,  as  a  clerk  in  the 
Administration,  as  a  postman,  as  a  warehouseman,  as  a  pilot 
or  sailor  on  the  river  boats ;  also  as  a  smith,  mechanic,  sawyer, 
or  brickmaker.  Porter  in  the  region  of  the  Cataracts,  navvy 
on  the  railway,  he  offers  his  arms  and  his  labour  when  the 
remuneration  satisfies  the  new  needs  that  have  taken  birth  in 
him.  Trader  above  all,  he  becomes  of  a  more  delicate  taste  in 
the  acceptance  of  merchandise  in  exchange;  the  stufEs,  the 
tissues  of  striking  colours  but  mediocre  quality,  formerly 
sought  for,  have  to-day  no  demand,  and  must  give  place  to 
articles  of  a  superior  kind.  He  accepts  money;  he  is  even 
acquainted  with  paper  money,  for  many  purchases  are  effected 
by  means  of  bonds,  which  are  then  cashed  at  the  European 
revenue  offices.  He  is  conscious  of  his  own  personality — 
claims  loudly  the  redress  of  any  wrong  which  he  conceives 
himself  to  have  suffered.  Grown  more  sociable,  he  receives, 
without  distrust  in  his  house,  the  stranger  and  the  traveller. 
He  begins  to  repudiate  his  old  primitive  customs,  such  as  the 
casque,  or  the  proof  of  poison.  He  sends  his  children  to  the 
missionary  schools;  and,  to  encourage  him  in  this,  the  State 
has  started  a  system  of  colonies  of  schools,  the  pupils  of  which 
are  rapidly  increasing.     Fetishism  is  beginning  to  lose  ad- 


o 

u 
O 


The  Suppression  of  Slavery  203 

herents,  and  religious  proselytism  proceeds  not  without  suc- 
cess. The  legend  of  the  Negro  opposed  to  all  improvement 
can  no  longer  be  maintained  in  face  of  this  experience.  We 
may  consider  it  as  certain  that  the  native,  well  conducted  and 
well  directed,  is  fit  to  be  assimilated  with  civilisation.  Guard- 
ing ourselves  against  optimism,  we  do  not  disguise  that  there 
remains  much  to  be  done  in  order  to  introduce  by  successive 
stages  that  civilisation  to  the  farthest  frontiers  of  the  State. 
But  the  facts  warrant  our  believing  in  the  possibility  of  such 
a  result,  which  is  the  final  object  of  the  enterprise  of  your 
Majesty.  The  Congo  State  in  the  few  years  which  have 
elapsed  since  its  creation,  has  not  failed  in  its  task.  Time 
and  perseverance  will  crown  the  work,  and  it  will  be  to  Bel- 
gium, if  she  wishes  it,  that  its  accomplishment  will  belong. 

In  a  later  report — the  last  from  which  it  will  be 
necessary  to  quote — Baron  Van  Eetvelde  reviews  the 
complete  work  of  the  Congo  Free  State  from  its 
creation  to  the  date  of  his  writing  (1897),  and  very 
ably  sums  up  the  situation  then  existing: 

The  Congo  State  [says  Baron  Van  Eetvelde]  inherited  from 
its  birth  the  heaviest  and  most  perilous  task  in  the  anti- 
slavery  work.  The  territories  which  fell  to  it  had  the  sad 
privilege  of  being  in  their  greater  part  handed  over  to  the  raz- 
zias, and  of  including  the  principal  slave  centres  and  the  most 
important  markets  of  human  flesh.  However  willing  were  the 
Powers,  who  in  the  Berlin  Act  solemnly  condemned  the  slave 
trade,  the  most  optimistic  only  dared  to  hope  for  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  abominable  practices,  like  those  Stanley  had 
witnessed  on  the  banks  of  the  Upper  Congo,  in  a  distant 
future. 

In  truth,  the  crusade  against  the  slave  trade,  in  some  meas- 
ure ordered  by  the  Berlin  Conference,  remained  in  the  follow- 
ing years  in  the  condition  of  a  mere  vow;  and  the  Congo 
Government,  which  on  its  own  account  had  then  already 
organised  a  chain  of  posts  of  defence  against  the  invasions  of 


204         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  slave-hunters,  was  condemned  to  deplore  that,  despite 
some  partial  successes,  a  great  part  of  its  provinces  still  re- 
mained in  their  power.  Such  were  at  that  epoch  the  horrors 
and  cruelties  denounced  to  the  civilised  world,  such  was  the 
deplorable  situation  in  which  the  people  of  Central  Africa, 
decimated  and  massacred  by  their  oppressors,  passed  an 
agonising  existence,  that,  struck  by  a  sentiment  of  legitimate 
indignation,  the  Powers  again  decided  by  the  Act  of  Brussels 
(1890)  to  deal  a  decisive  blow  at  the  slave  trade. 

The  Brussels  Conference  characterised  the  part  reserved  to 
the  Congo  State  in  the  anti -slavery  campaign,  the  importance 
of  the  undertakings  which  devolved  upon  it,  the  difficulties  of 
the  task  which  assigned  it  the  perilous  honour  of  being  the 
advance  guard  on  the  battle-field.  The  number  of  enemies  to 
be  fought,  the  organisation  of  their  bands,  their  installation 
from  a  remote  date  in  the  regions  which  they  terrorised,  their 
supply  in  firearms  and  munitions,  the  subjection  even  of  the 
natives,  were  so  many  grounds  of  apprehension  and  dis- 
quietude as  to  the  final  issue  of  the  struggle  undertaken,  and 
as  to  the  fate  ultimately  reserved  for  the  African  populations. 
It  really  seemed,  in  that  encounter  between  civilisation  and 
slavery,  of  which  the  stake  was  the  life  and  liberty  of  millions 
of  human  beings,  as  if  failure  would  dispel  for  ever  the  hope  of 
a  better  future.  Thus  it  was  that  circumstances  had  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  Congo  State  the  destiny  of  Central  Africa 
and  its  tribes,  and  the  situation  was  tersely  defined  by  an 
English  missionary  when,  with  the  experience  acquired  during 
a  long  residence  in  Africa,  he  wrote  in  1893,  during  the  pro- 
gress of  the  military  campaign:  "  I  am  convinced  that,  unless 
the  Arabs  be  annihilated,  a  general  massacre  will  ensue.  This 
is  the  moment  for  the  Europeans  to  play  their  last  card  against 
the  Arabs.  Whether  they  will  carry  the  day  or  not,  I  cannot 
say." 

Civilisation  did  carry  the  day.  And  has  not  history  to 
register  that  this  victory  for  the  Congo  State,  due  to  the 
bravery  of  Belgian  officers,  entitled  it  to  merit  well  of  those 
interested  in  the  fate  of  the  native  populations?  If  to-day 
there  opens  for  them  a  new  era  of  liberty  and  regeneration,  if 


The  Suppression  of  Slavery  205 

the  amelioration  of  their  material  and  moral  condition  can 
now  be  pursued,  they  owe  it  to  the  annihilation  of  the  pro- 
moters of  slavery. 

Elsewhere  has  been  told  at  the  price  of  what  sacrifices  of 
men  and  money,  at  the  price  of  what  valour  in  every  case, 
these  results  have  been  attained.  The  facts  are  there  to  attest 
that  these  sacrifices  have  not  been  in  vain.  The  men-hunters 
reduced  to  impotence,  their  bands  dispersed,  their  chiefs  dis- 
appeared, the  fortresses  of  slavery  laid  level  with  the  ground, 
the  natives  rebuilding  their  villages  under  the  shadow  of  the 
posts  of  the  State,  giving  themselves  up  to  the  peaceful  pur- 
suits of  cultivation  of  the  soil — an  era  of  tranquillity  succeeding 
the  sombre  and  sanguinary  episodes  of  the  old  regime.  Every 
mail  from  Africa  brings  proof  of  the  progress  of  this  period  of 
pacification,  and  shows  the  natives,  delivered  from  an  odious 
yoke,  recovering  confidence,  and  living  peaceably  in  their  own 
abodes. 

That  the  problem  of  the  suppression  of  slavery  in 
Central  Africa  had  now  been  solved,  we  have  had 
abundant  incontrovertible  evidence.  That  ^  oratify- 
its  solution  was  effected  with  a  minimum  ingRetro- 
of  bloodshed,  and  in  a  marvellously  short  ^^^^^' 

period  of  time  for  the  accomplishment  of  so  gigan- 
tic a  task,  we  have  also  seen.  The  first  and  greatest 
of  the  objects  for  which  King  Leopold  had  so  long 
laboured  was  at  length  realised.  The  applause  of 
all  civilised  peoples  had  been  justly  earned,  and  was 
ungrudgingly  given,  and  substantial  reward  was 
soon  to  follow. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
FRONTIERS  AND  DIPLOMATIC  SETTLEMENTS 

THE  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo  contains 
about  1,500,000  square  miles,  of  which  the 
Free  State  occupies  1,000,000,  and  its  neigh- 
bours, France,  Great  Britain,  Gerraany,  and  Portu- 
gal, about  500,000.  On  the  east  of  the  Free  State, 
and  divided  from  it  by  Lakes  Tanganyika,  Kivu, 
and  Albert  Edward,  is  German  East  Africa,  on  the 
coast  of  the  Indian  Ocean;  on  the  south-east  lie 
British  possessions;  on  the  south  the  Portuguese, 
and  on  the  east  and  north-east  the  French  Congo 
and  Soudan;  on  the  north-east,  in  the  Nile  Valley, 
lie  the  Egyptian  Soudan  and  the  Uganda  Protec- 
torate, the  one  on  the  west,  the  other  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  Nile. 

The  Berlin  Conference  of  1885  had  not  dealt  with 
questions  of  territory  except  to  delimit  the  area 
comprised  in  the  Congo  Basin.  By  the  Anglo- 
German  Agreements  of  1886  and  1890,  the  borders 
of  German  East  Africa  had  been  generally  defined. 
France,  however,  still  fostered  the  hope  of  acquiring 
dominion  of  the  Egyptian  Soudan  and,  perhaps,  of 
nearly  all  of  the  northern  part  of  Africa.  The  ar- 
rangement with  the  Sovereign  of  the  Congo  Free 
State,  giving  her  a  right  of  pre-emption  of  the  State 

206 


W 


w 


o 


o 


Frontiers  and  Diplomatic  Settlements    207 

over  other  Powers,  would  indicate  an  ambition  in 
this  direction.  That  France  endeavoured  to  achieve 
her  aim  in  this  respect  was  forcibly  demonstrated 
by  the  expedition  of  Captain  Marchand  and  the 
Fashoda  incident.  So  far  as  Germany  and  Portugal 
were  concerned,  the  Congo  Free  State's  boundary 
had  been  well-nigh  firmly  established,  but  with 
France  and  Great  Britain  there  was  a  lack  of  settle- 
ment on  this  important  question  which  threatened 
the  State  with  future  insecurity. 

The  first  convention  on  this  subject  was  con- 
cluded w4th  Great  Britain,  and  concerned  the  Bahr- 
el-Ghazal,  referred  to  in  the  succeeding  chapter. 

The  Franco-Congolese  Convention  of  14th  August, 
1894,  was  of  great  importance  to  the  young  State, 
albeit  the  price  it  paid  for  the  friendly  attitude  of 
France  may  appear  greater  than  the  security  af- 
forded. The  relations  which  existed  between  France 
and  the  State,  when  the  upper  course  of  the  Ubanghi 
became  the  object  of  frontier  settlement,  were  de- 
fined by  the  Convention  of  5th  February,  1885,  and 
that  of  29th  April,  1887.  In  the  first,  France  agreed, 
in  return  for  the  right  of  pre-emption  conferred 
on  her  in  1884,  to  determine  her  own  Congolese 
limits  and  those  of  the  Free  State,  and  to  guaran- 
tee the  latter's  neutrality.  In  the  second,  the  Bel- 
gian Congo  surrendered  a  considerable  territory  to 
France  by  substituting  the  Ubanghi  to  the  1 7th  de- 
gree of  east  longitude  for  the  boundary  defined  in 
the  third  article  of  the  treaty  of  5th  February,  1885, 
and  the  modification  of  her  right  of  pre-emption  in 
favour  of  Belgium  in  certain  contingencies.     These 


2o8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

negotiations,  beginning  in  1 891,  were  not  settled  un- 
til 1894,  owing  to  conflicting  views  as  to  the  course 
of  the  Ubanghi.  Moreover,  the  French  Government 
had  expostulated  vigorously  against  the  British  pro- 
posal to  lease  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  to  the  Congo  Free 
State,  while  Germany  protested  against  British  pos- 
session of  the  strip  of  land  between  Lakes  Tan- 
ganyika and  Albert  Edward,  which  the  Free  State 
intended  granting  in  payment  for  its  lease  of  the 
Bahr-el-Ghazal.  The  article  conveying  this  strip, 
manifestly  intended  for  the  Cape-to-Cairo  railway 
conceived  by  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes,  was,  in  fact,  with- 
drawn by  arrangement  betw^een  the  British  and 
Congo  Governments  on  June  22,  1894.  Meantime, 
the  French  Government  had  contended  that  the 
river  Uelle  was  the  true  upper  course  of  the  Ubanghi, 
and  that  the  State  had  no  rights  north  of  it,  "even 
though  it  resulted  in  moving  the  State's  frontier  line 
south  of  the  fourth  parallel  secured  to  it  by  the  Con- 
vention of  February,  1885."  There  were,  however, 
on  the  part  of  the  Congo  State,  the  advantages  of 
possession  and  effective  occupation  of  the  territory 
north  of  the  Uelle  and  the  right  bank  of  the  Mbomu, 
which  had  now  been  geographically  established  as 
the  uppermost  course  of  the  Ubanghi.  An  offer  was 
made  by  the  Congo  State  to  arbitrate  the  matter  in 
accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  Berlin  Act. 
France,  however,  declined  to  submit  the  case  to  such 
tribunal.  Finally,  after  three  years'  delay,  a  con- 
vention between  France  and  the  Congo  Free  State 
was  signed  in  Paris  on  14th  August,  1894,  which 
contained  six  articles.     The  first  conceded  part  of 


Frontiers  and  Diplomatic  Settlements    209 

the  Belgian  claim  by  constituting  the  river  Mbomu 
the  upper  course  of  the  Ubanghi. 

Article  i.  The  frontier  between  the  Independent  State  of 
the  Congo  and  the  colony  of  the  French  Congo,  after  following 
the  thalweg  of  the  Ubanghi  to  the  confluence  of  the  Mbomu 
and  the  Uelle,  shall  be  formed  in  the  following  manner: — 
First,  the  thalweg  of  Mbomu  to  its  source;  second,  a  straight 
line  joining  the  crest  of  the  water-parting  between  the  basins 
of  the  Congo  and  the  Nile.  From  this  point  the  frontier  of 
the  Independent  State  is  constituted  by  the  said  crest  of  the 
water-parting  to  as  far  as  its  intersection  with  the  30th  degree 
of  east  longitude  (Greenwich). 

Article  2.  It  is  understood  that  France  will  exercise,  under 
conditions  which  shall  be  determined  by  a  special  arrange- 
ment, the  right  of  police  on  the  course  of  the  Mbomu,  with 
the  right  of  pursuit  on  the  left  bank.  This  right  of  police  will 
not  be  exercisable  on  the  left  bank,  but  exclusively  along  the 
course  of  the  river,  and  so  long  as  pursuit  by  the  French 
agents  is  indispensable  to  effect  the  arrest  of  the  authors 
of  offences  committed  on  French  territory  or  on  the  waters 
of  the  river.  France  shall  have,  when  necessary,  a  right  of 
passage  on  the  left  bank,  to  assure  her  communications  along 
the  course  of  the  river. 

The  third  article  stipulated  for  the  gradual  sur- 
render to  the  French  of  the  posts  established  by  the 
State  north  of  the  Uelle ;  and  the  fourth  and  the  final 
articles  "bound  the  State  to  renounce  all  political 
action  of  any  kind  to  the  west  or  north  of  the  follow- 
ing line — the  30th  degree  of  east  longitude,  from  its 
point  of  intersection  with  the  crest  of  the  water- 
parting  of  the  basins  of  the  Congo  and  the  Nile  to 
as  far  as  the  point  where  this  meridian  meets  the 
parallel  5°  30',  and  thence  that  parallel  to  the  Nile." 


2IO         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

By  these  articles,  and  the  good  feehng  that  has 
since  prevailed  between  the  French  and  the  Belgians, 
all  matters  likely  to  have  caused  dispute  have  been 
settled.  A  well-defined  boundary  has  been  laid 
down  between  the  French  possessions  and  the  Congo 
State  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Nile.  If  the  King 
of  the  Belgians  surrendered  to  France  what  others 
would  have  retained,  it  was  so  dealt  with  because  of 
that  wise  political  foresight  which  has  characterised 
his  Majesty's  diplomacy  in  other  respects.  The 
friendly  relations  between  France  and  the  Congo 
State,  the  settlement  of  northern  boundaries  along 
the  Mbomu,  and  the  lease  of  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  from 
Great  Britain,  have  dispelled  much  Belgian  anxiety. 
The  question  which  now  appears  to  forebode  diffi- 
culty is  what  the  Belgians  believe  to  be  Great 
Britain's  scheme  for  a  pretext  to  break  the  lease  of 
the  Enclave  of  Lado,  a  rich  and  prosperous  territory 
in  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal,  where  the  Belgians  have 
established  posts  along  the  Nile  as  far  north  as  Lado. 
As  to  Great  Britain's  purpose  in  this  connection 
there  have  been  many  recent  signs. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  BAHR-EL-GHAZAL  AND  THE  NILE 

IN  addition  to  the  territories  of  the  Congo  Free 
State  proper,  the  sovereignty  of  which  is  vested 
in  Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  and  his 
successors,  King  Leopold  holds  on  lease  from  Great 
Britain  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  up  to  io°  N.  A  treaty 
entered  into  between  the  Congo  Free  State  and  Great 
Britain  on  12th  May,  1894,  determines  the  duration 
of  this  lease,  and  the  extent  of  the  territory  to  which 
it  applies.  The  conditions  are  somewhat  compli- 
cated, partaking  in  a  measure  of  the  nature  of  an 
exchange,  the  Congo  Free  State,  by  Article  III., 
leasing  to  Great  Britain  a  strip  of  territory  between 
the  lakes  Tanganyika  and  Albert  Edward. 

To  be  more  precise:  In  1890  the  Congo  Free 
State  despatched  several  missions  to  its  frontiers, 
some  of  which  penetrated  the  Nile  region  and  made 
various  political  arrangements  with  the  ruling  chiefs 
there.  It  happened  also  at  that  period  (July, 
1890)  that  Germany  and  Great  Britain  entered 
into  an  agreement  whereby  Germany  acknowledged 
the  paramount  influence  of  Great  Britain  in  the 
Nile  Basin.  This  agreement  was  no  sooner  con- 
cluded than  Great  Britain  opened  negotiations  with 
the  Congo  Free  State,  offering  to  grant  thereto,  on 


2 1 2  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

lease,  certain  territories  situated  west  of  the  Basin 
of  the  Nile,  if  the  Congo  Free  State  would  accord  to 
Great  Britain's  presence  in  the  Nile  Basin  recog- 
nition similar  to  that  which  it  had  just  obtained 
from  Germany.  Out  of  this  overture  grew  the 
treaty  of  12th  May,  1894,  between  the  Congo  Free 
State  and  Great  Britain,  to  which  allusion  has  al- 
ready been  made. 

By  that  treaty,  Great  Britain  leases  to  Leopold  II., 
King  of  the  Belgians  and  Sovereign  of  the  Congo 
Free  State,  the  territories  limited  by  a  line  starting 
from  a  point  situated  on  the  west  bank  of  Lake 
Albert  Edward,  south  of  Mahagi,  to  the  point  of  inter- 
section of  the  30th  meridian  east  of  Greenwich,  the 
frontier  line  of  the  territories  so  assigned  following 
the  head  of  the  division  of  the  Nile  and  Congo  waters 
to  the  2  5th  meridian  east  of  Greenwich ;  and  along 
this  meridian  to  its  intersection  with  the  loth  north 
parallel,  and  along  this  parallel  direct  to  a  point  north 
of  Fashoda ;  thence  to  the  west  bank  of  Lake  Albert 
Edward,  south  of  Mahagi.  These  territories  comprise 
the  entire  basin  of  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  River  and  its 
affluents  (except  the  upper  portion  of  the  Bahr-el- 
Arab),  and  are  generally  referred  to  as  the  Bahr-el- 
Ghazal.  The  treaty  further  provides  that  the  lease 
is  to  remain  operative  during  the  reign  of  King  Leo- 
pold IL  only,  except  as  regards  that  portion  of  the 
Bahr-el-Ghazal  west  of  the  30th  meridian,  perma- 
nently vested  in  the  Congo  Free  State. 

France,  which  had  never  recognised  British  in- 
fluence in  the  Nile  Basin,  at  once  protested  against 
this  arrangement,  asserting  that  Great  Britain  had 


m 


The  Bahr-el-Ghazal  and  the  Nile        213 

leased  territories  which  did  not  belong  to  her.  While 
this  delicate  question  was  sub  judice  there  arose  the 
celebrated  Fashoda  incident  which  brought  Great 
Britain  and  France  perilously  near  to  war.  The 
circumstances  of  that  incident  are  too  near  our  own 
times,  and  too  remote  from  the  purpose  of  this  book, 
to  need  recounting  here.  But  it  is  important  to 
refer  to  it  in  this  place,  because  in  the  settlement  of 
the  Fashoda  dispute  between  Great  Britain  and 
France  the  latter  recognises  the  paramount  influence 
of  the  former  in  the  Basin  of  the  Nile. 

The  only  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  execution  of 
the  treaty  of  12th  May,  1894,  was  now  removed, 
Great  Britain's  right  to  dispose  of  the  territories 
leased  to  the  Sovereign  of  the  Congo  Free  State  being 
everywhere  admitted.  But  now  Great  Britain  her- 
self sought,  without  justification,  to  annul  the  treaty. 
Because  the  Congo  State  had  made  therein  certain 
reservations  in  regard  to  France— a  perfectly  natural 
proceeding  at  a  period  when  the  rights  of  Great 
Britain  over  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  were  in  dispute  — 
Great  Britain  contended  that  the  treaty  of  12th 
May,  1894,  had  practically  lapsed.  After  the  battle 
of  Omdurman,  the  British  even  went  so  far  as  to 
give,  in  part,  practical  effect  to  this  extraordinary 
view  of  their  treaty  obligations,  occupying,  upon 
several  occasions,  Meshra-er-Rek,  at  the  confluence 
of  the  Bahr-Djur  and  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal. 

From  information  which  reached  Europe  and 
America  early  in  November,  1904,  it  would  appear 
that  Great  Britain  has  resolved  to  carry  this  matter 
with  a  high  hand.     A  British  expedition  was  said  to 


214  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

be  then  in  process  of  formation,  composed  of  2500 
native  troops,  officered  by  Englishmen,  to  penetrate 
Central  Africa,  ostensibly  to  restore  order  among 
the  Niam-Niam  tribe. 

Now  the  Niam-Niam  tribe  inhabit  the  Bahr-el- 
Ghazal  country.  That  is  one  reason  why  Great 
Britain  concerns  herself  with  that  tribe;  but  there 
is  another,  and  a  much  stronger,  reason.  Recently 
it  has  been  discovered  that  vast  mineral  wealth  ex- 
ists in  that  region,  and  Belgians,  Frenchmen,  Ger- 
mans, and  particularly  natives  of  that  country  which 
"seeks  no  gold  mines  and  seeks  no  territory," 
have  busily  employed  themselves  in  prospecting  it. 
Trading  relations  have  been  established  by  small 
companies  supposed  to  be  engaged  in  exchanging 
fire  arms  and  ammunition  for  ivory,  but  really 
prospecting  for  ore. 

Side  by  side  with  this  information  comes  the 
official  announcement  that  the  British  Government 
has  given  orders,  either  directly  or  through  a  sub- 
sidised company,  for  the  erection  of  a  permanent 
telegraph  connecting  Khartoum  with  the  Bahr-el- 
Ghazal,  and  that  transport  for  traders  up  the  White 
Nile  is  guaranteed  as  far  as  Fashoda.  Already  a 
section  of  the  British  newspaper  press  is  advocating 
the  establishment  of  British  military  stations  and 
posts  upon  ground  of  which  King  Leopold  holds  a 
perfectly  valid  lease  granted  by  Great  Britain ! 

Is  it  too  high  a  flight  of  the  imagination  to  suppose 
that  the  patience  with  which  the  British  Government 
has  listened  to  the  libellous  tirades  against  the  Congo 
Free  State,  in  the  form  of  petitions  to  the  House  of 


M 


The  Bahr-el-Ghazal  and  the  Nile        215 

Commons,  is  to  be  explained  by  its  evident  desire  to 
cut  loose  from  its  treaty  obligations,  and  forcibly 
take  away  what  it  voluntarily  ceded  to  the  Congo 
Free  State  for  a  valuable  consideration? 


CHAPTER    XX 
MUTINIES  OF  THE  BATETELA  TRIBE 

THE  hasty  and  ill-advised  trial  and  execution 
of    the    chief,  Gongo    Lutete,    described    in 
another  chapter,  proved  a  source  of  much 
danger  and  tribulation  to  the  Congo  Free  State.     It 
was  the  act  of  a  misguided  and  over-zealous  officer, 
The  without  doubt  undertaken  in  good  faith, 

Bateteia  but  none  the  less  disastrous  upon  that 
Grievance,  ^ccount.  The  incident  has  never  been  de- 
fended, but  always  deplored,  by  the  Congo  Govern- 
ment, to  which  it  occasioned  grievous  loss  in  men, 
money,  and  reputation. 

Lutete's  men  were  loyal  to  their  chief  and  bitterly 
resented  his  execution.  So  threatening  did  their 
attitude  become  that  it  was  decided  to  remove  them 
to  some  considerable  distance  from  the  scene  of  the 
tragedy.  At  the  moment  of  their  departure,  they 
fired  upon  the  people  and  vowed  complete  vengeance 
whenever  opportunity  for  it  should  occur.  Later, 
at  Luluabourg,  when  they  accepted  an  invitation 
to  enter  the  Force  Publique,  all  danger  from  them 
was  thought  to  have  been  averted.  But  the  ap- 
parent content  of  the  fierce  Batetelas  was  simulated; 
they  were  merely  biding  their  time. 

216 


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B 


i^m 


Mutinies  of  the  Batetela  Tribe  217 

It  was  d tiring  the  stimmer  of  1895,  ^^  Luluabourg, 
that  the  Batetelas  openly  revolted.  After  murder- 
ing some  of  their  officers,  they  attacked  the  j^ie 
post  at  Kabinda.  Next,  they  struck  out  First 
to  the  north,  with  intent  to  surprise  Lu-  Revolt, 
sambo.  At  Gandu,  and  on  the  Lomami,  they  mur- 
dered more  Belgian  officers,  and  for  a  time  it  was 
impossible  to  foresee  a  limit  to  their  depredations. 

Though  the  mutineers  were  less  than  four  hundred 
in  number,  in  the  circumstances  they  were  potent 
for  a  vast  amount  of  mischief.  They  were  well 
armed  with  modern  weapons  of  precision,  were 
abundantly  furnished  with  ammunition,  and  had, 
besides,  some  military  knowledge,  acquired  from 
their  Belgian  officers,  which  rendered  them  almost 
the  equal  of  European  troops.  To  these  advantages 
must  be  added  the  natural  valour  of  the  Batetela, 
and  the  desperation  with  which  men,  knowing  that 
their  treason  will  be  punished  by  death  in  the  event 
of  their  capture,  may  be  expected  to  fight. 

Commandant  Lothaire,  on  hearing  of  the  mis- 
fortune that  had  befallen  the  State,  hastened  with  a 
small  force  to  intercept  the  Batetelas,  then  marching 
on  Nyangwe.  He  met  the  mutineers  on  the  i8th  of 
October,  near  Gandu,  and,  notwithstanding  that 
the  force  he  commanded  was  much  inferior,  at  once 
assumed  the  offensive.  A  fierce  fight  ensued,  in 
which  the  mutineers  were  badly  defeated,  losing 
many  killed  and  prisoners,  and  having  finally  to  fly. 
Previous  to  this  engagement  another  Belgian  officer, 
Lieutenant  Gillain,  had  been  active  to  retrieve  the 
fortunes  of  the  State.     Having  gathered  together 


2i8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

such  remnants  of  the  State's  forces  as  remained 
loyal,  and  were  to  be  found  scattered  about  the 
Lomami  district,  he  boldly  attacked  the  mutineers. 
The  battle  opened  greatly  to  his  disadvantage,  but 
ended  in  his  victory.  Lieutenant  Gillain  then  added 
his  forces  to  those  of  Commandant  Lothaire,  and 
the  combination,  as  we  have  seen,  was  far  less  in 
number  than  that  of  the  mutineers,  though  it 
proved  superior  to  them. 

After  their  defeat  on  the  1 8th  of  October,  in  which 
they  lost  the  greater  part  of  the  spoil  taken  at  Lulua- 
bourg,  Kabinda,  and  Gandu,  the  Batetelas  broke  up 
into  small  bands,  and  sought  refuge  in  a  forest,  into 
which  it  was  impracticable  for  the  State's  forces  to 
pursue  them.  The  latter  had  now  become  nearly  a 
thousand  strong,  and  numbered  among  its  officers 
the  brave  Michaux,  Svensson,  De  Besche,  Jiirgens, 
Konings,  and  Droeven  —  a  force  sufficient,  it  was 
believed,  to  deal  with  any  recrudescence  of  the 
trouble. 

A  few  days  later  an  incident  occurred  which  rudely 
dispelled  this  notion.  The  scattered  bands  of  mu- 
tineers again  united,  to  make  safe  their  retreat,  and 
were  probably  about  to  march  to  the  Manyema  coun- 
try, when  they  accidentally  met  a  Belgian  column. 
Both  were  surprised.  The  Batetelas,  by  far  the 
more  numerous,  at  once  attacked  the  Belgians.  At 
the  very  opening  of  the  fight,  the  four  Belgian  offi- 
cers who  were  leading  the  Congo  force  were  shot 
dead.  The  bands  which  had  to  the  present  re- 
frained from  joining  the  main  body  of  the  Batetelas 
now  hastened  to  do  so. 


Mutinies  of  the  Batetela  Tribe  219 

Perceiving  that  their  power  would  continue  to 
grow  so  long  as  they  were  left  unmolested,  Com- 
mandant Lothaire  determined  to  attack  the  Bate- 
telas  again  with  all  the  force  at  his  command.  The 
battle  took  place  November  6th,  at  Gongo  Machoffe, 
and  resulted  in  a  complete  victory  for  the  State 
forces.  The  Batetelas  lost  heavily  in  killed  and 
prisoners,  while  such  of  them  as  survived  fled  for 
protection  to  various  local  chiefs,  who  soon,  how- 
ever, handed  them  over  to  Commandant  Lothaire. 

Again,  notwithstanding  their  bitter  experience, 
the  Congo  State  and  its  advisers,  military  and  civil, 
permitted  themselves  to  be  lulled  into  the  confidence 
of  security.  Nearly  two  years  of  quietude  on  the 
part  of  the  Batetelas  led  the  Belgians  to  believe  that 
that  fierce  race  had  forgiven,  if  they  had  not  for- 
gotten, the  injury  unwittingly  inflicted  upon  them — 
that  the  trouble  had  been  fought  out,  and  the  inci- 
dent from  which  it  originated  relegated  to  its  proper 
place  among  the  unfortunate  happenings  of  a  by- 
gone period. 

The  awakening  from  this  dream  came  in  1897. 
Commandant  Chaltin  had  driven  the  Dervishes  as 
far  as  the  Nile,  and  Baron  Dhanis,  with  a  -j-jje 

larger  force  than  Chaltin's,  had  been  sent  Second 
to  take  possession  of  the  Lado  territory  Revolt, 
to  found  posts  there,  and  to  fortify  it  against  possi- 
ble Dervish  inroads.  With  a  column  of  more  than 
three  thousand  men,  a  third  of  whom  were  Batetelas, 
Dhanis  set  out  from  Avakubi  towards  the  Nile. 

In  the  second  week  of  February,  1897,  Captain 
Leroi,  with  two  thousand  men,  had  just  reached 


220  Story  of  the  Congo  P>ee  State 

Dirfi,  when  the  Batetelas,  of  which  the  force  was 
mainly  composed,  suddenly  mutinied.  The  mutiny 
began  with  the  murder  of  Captain  Leroi  and  his 
fellow  officers,  after  which  the  mutineers  retreated 
upon  the  Obi.  As  soon  as  news  of  this  event  was 
brought  to  Dhanis,  he  threw  his  force  right  across 
the  path  of  the  mutineers,  and  a  desperate  battle 
ensued  (March  i8,  1897).  The  pages  of  history  af- 
ford few  parallels  to  this  singular  conflict.  No 
sooner  had  the  fight  begun,  than  about  five  hundred 
of  the  Batetelas  commanded  by  Dhanis  deserted, 
and  went  over  to  the  enemy,  their  kinsmen.  The 
result,  as  may  be  imagined,  was  chaos.  With  great 
difficulty  Baron  Dhanis  effected  his  retreat.  His 
losses  were  grievous.  Ten  Belgian  officers  fell, 
among  them  a  brother  of  Baron  Dhanis.  Among 
those  who  specially  distinguished  themselves  by 
their  gallantry  upon  this  occasion  was  Lieutenant 
Delecourt,  who,  with  a  miserably  small  following, 
covered  the  retreat,  at  the  cost  of  his  own  life  and 
the  lives  of  every  member  of  his  faithful  company. 
Having  at  last  succeeded  in  reaching  Avakubi, 
Dhanis  entrenched  the  handful  of  men  left  to  him 
in  the  little  station  there,  and,  leaving  Commandant 
Henry  in  command,  hurried  to  Stanley  Falls,  to 
report  the  disaster  and  concert  measures  for  regain- 
ing what  had  been  lost. 

Meanwhile  the  Batetelas  were  not  inactive.  Mak- 
ing straight  for  Stanley  Falls,  they  destroyed  all  the 
stations  on  their  way;  but  just  before  they  reached 
what  was  thought  to  be  their  objective  they  struck 
out    eastward.     Baron    Dhanis    at    once    concluded 


State  Officials  at  Ponthierville. 


^sSHDHnc^v 


-i*^      -- 


■*!-: 


"j».*^-^        «■ 


Saddle  Ox,  Lusambo  (Lualaba-Kassai). 


Mutinies  of  the  Batetela  Tribe  221 

that  they  were  bound  for  their  native  country^ 
Manyema.  The  assurance  that  they  contemplated 
no  invasion  of  State  property  was  a  rehef,  but  the 
possibihty  that  so  considerable  a  number  of  well- 
armed  men,  flushed  with  victory,  reaching  their 
tribe  and  reporting  to  it  how  they  had  defeated  the 
redoubtable  Baron  Dhanis  was  very  disquieting,  for 
such  an  event  would  infallibly  have  led  to  the  up- 
rising of  all  the  Batetelas.  Baron  Dhanis,  having 
returned  from  Stanley  Falls,  placed  a  body  of  picked 
men  at  Nyangwe  and  Kassongo,  to  intercept  the 
mutineers  if  they  chanced  to  pass  that  way,  while 
troops,  with  European  officers,  were  sent  from  Stanley 
Pool  to  pursue  them. 

At  this  juncture,  the  Belgian  cause  was  aided  by 
an  outbreak  of  smallpox  among  the  mutineers, 
which  compelled  them  to  encamp  near  Lindi,  not 
far  from  the  British  frontier.  At  that  place  Com- 
mandant Henry,  fresh  from  Avakubi  (which  he  had 
found  deserted),  with  seven  hundred  men,  came  upon 
them  and  almost  succeeded  in  driving  them  into 
British  territory.  Meanwhile,  Lieutenant  Sannaes 
had  successfully  repelled  an  attack  upon  his  post  at 
Katue  (Semliki),  which  so  enraged  the  mutineers 
that  the  leader  of  the  attacking  party,  a  man  named 
Malumba,  was  murdered  by  one  of  his  own  men  who 
held  him  responsible  for  its  failure. 

June  had  arrived  before  Commandant  Henry  and 
Lieutenant  Sannaes  could  join  their  forces,  and  then 
the  regular  pursuit  of  the  mutineers  began;  but 
another  month  elapsed  before  they  could  be  brought 
to  battle.     The  result  was  a  great  victory  for  the 


222  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Congo  State  forces.  Over  four  hundred  Batetelas 
were  killed,  and  they  lost,  besides,  five  hundred  rifles 
and  ten  thousand  cartridges.  And  then  ensued 
what  had  happened  in  like  circumstances  before — 
the  surviving  mutineers  broke  up  into  small  bands 
and  dispersed  in  various  directions.  Though  vic- 
torious, Commandant  Henry  was  exhausted,  and 
fell  back  upon  his  base.  Baron  Dhanis,  who  had 
been  guarding  the  Lualaba  to  prevent  the  mutineers' 
crossing  it,  now  found  it  safe  to  pursue  their  scattered 
bands. 

At  last  the  Batetela  revolt  w^as  broken.  There- 
after some  minor  skirmishes  occurred  here  and  there ; 
but  they  were  as  the  feeble  flickerings  of  an  expiring 
flame — a  flame  that  had  seared  the  growing  Congo 
State  only  to  enable  it  to  show  to  the  world  an  admir- 
able example  of  discipline  and  resisting  power  in 
circumstances  of  extraordinary  difficulty. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

DISPLACEMENT  OF  THE  POPULATION 

THE  instinct  of  the  nomad  largely  prevails  in  all 
savage  races,  but  in  none  does  it  prevail  to  a 
greater  extent  than  among  the  black  tribes 
of  Central  Africa.     It  is  one  of  their  marked  char- 
acteristics, and  a  fruitful  source  of  trouble. 

Central  African  tribes  are  greatly  influenced  by 
their  superstitions.  Like  the  North  American  In- 
dians, they  have  their  medicine  men  who  victims 
conjure  up  all  sorts  of  occult  prognosti-  ofSuper- 
cations  of  imminent  and  mysterious  phe-  stition. 
nomena.  With  them  the  fetish  doctor  is  little  less 
than  a  god.  If  this  wise  man  asserts  that  a  village 
has  suffered  ill-luck  because  the  new  moon  dips  to 
the  left  or  right,  his  deluded  followers  collect  their 
effects,  devastate  the  village,  and  move  into  some 
region  which  he  may  indicate  is  free  from  that  curse. 
If  rain  has  not  fallen  in  sufficient  quantity,  and  the 
crops  surrounding  the  village  have  withered,  or  if 
the  rain  has  been  too  abundant,  the  fetish  doctor 
may  forthwith  present  an  explanation  based  upon 
some  new  superstition.  Indeed,  there  are  thousands  / 
of  tribal  beliefs  in  the  Congo  Free  State  which  are^^ 
for  ever  disturbing  the  settlement  of  the  population. 
Implacable  enemies  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  not 

223 


224  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

wholly  ignorant  of  these  tribal  beliefs  and  cus- 
toms, pretend  to  regard  the  migratory  nature  of  the 
Central  African  savage  as  evidence  of  his  fear  of 
the  State's  government,  arising  from  a  feeling  of 
insecurity.  Such  persons  point  to  the  native's 
incorrigible  habit  of  moving  his  abode  as  an  un- 
mistakable sign  of  his  desire  to  escape  from  the  bar- 
barities practised  upon  him  by  officers  and  soldiers 
of  the  Congo  Government.  In  this  way  it  is  sought 
to  deceive  those  who  are  imacquainted  with  the 
habits  of  the  black  man — the  man  who,  a  few  years 
ago,  ate  his  brother  with  a  relish  which  civilised 
white  men  can  hardly  conceive. 

The  State,  however,  fully  cognisant  of  the  natural 
habits  of  its  black  subjects,  has  often  considered  the 
question  of  how  to  deal  effectually  with  these  dis- 
placements of  the  population.  There  are  times  when 
neither  superstition  nor  tribal  custom  causes  a  large 
exodus  from  a  well-established  village.  Sometimes 
the  fertility  and  luxuriant  grass  of  another  region 
attracts  the  more  enterprising  black,  who  has  learned 
to  cultivate  his  own  land.  Allured  by  glowing  ac- 
counts of  such  a  nature  he  gathers  about  him  his 
friends  and  family,  and  makes  off  to  what  he  con- 
siders to  be  a  new  Eldorado.  In  a  short  time,  the 
diablerie  of  the  fetish  doctor  has  again  unsettled 
him. 

Then,  again,  there  have  been  occasions  when  the 
natives  have  migrated  to  avoid  payment  of  the  taxes 
imposed  upon  them  by  their  own  chief  on  behalf  of 
the  State,  taxes  which  are  infinitesimal  in  value  as 
compared  with  the    benefits    of   civilisation   which 


Displacement  of  the  Population         225 

the  State  confers.  To  deal  generally  with  the  dis- 
placement of  the  population  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
has  been  a  matter  of  much  concern  to  the  Govern- 
ment. A  case  of  sleeping-sickness  or  smallpox  has 
occurred,  and  away  goes  the  whole  village  pell-mell 
into  another  region.  The  movements  of  the  native 
tribes  are  often  inscrutable,  and  afford  the  State  no 
clue  as  to  how  they  may  be  prevented.  Like  some 
species  of  wild  animals  which  instinctively  avoid 
certain  districts  of  the  forest  at  particular  sea- 
sons, or  on  account  of  some  unusual  phenomena,  the 
black  man  will  sometimes  quit  his  residence  for  no 
apparent  reason  at  all.  Nine  times  out  of  ten,  how- 
ever, he  migrates  on  account  of  things  entirely  un- 
connected with  any  administrative  act  of  the  State. 
Entire  villages  have  been  removed  because  a  death 
has  occurred  there  the  cause  of  which  was  inex- 
plicable to  the  black  man.  Occasionally  the  fetish 
doctor,  inspired  by  some  unexplained  caprice,  will  de- 
cree that  the  tribe  shall  move — he  knows  not  where. 
Ignorance  and  superstition  invariably  follow  a  leader 
whose  pretence  is  some  occult  power.  The  tribe 
moves;  and  another  tribe,  moving  from  a  similar 
or  other  impulse,  may  occupy  the  very  village  which 
the  first  tribe  had  abandoned  a  few  weeks  before. 

These  removals  along  the  banks  of  the  river  have 
sometimes  created  the  impression  on  a  superficial 
observer  that  the  population  of  the  Congo  Free 
State  has  diminished  or  disappeared.  Regardless  of 
the  impression  these  deserted  villages  have  made 
upon  those  who  seek  to  find  opportunity  for  vilifying 
the  Congo  Government,  the  inconvenience  resulting 


226  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

from  the  constant  removals  has  been  very  great. 
There  is  often  at  one  point  an  aggregation  of  people 
too  numerous  for  their  subsistence,  and  public  order 
and  tranquillity  are  disturbed,  with  disastrous  re- 
sults. More  strife  between  village  and  village  and 
tribe  and  tribe  has  been  occasioned  by  this  migratory 
habit  than  by  any  bloodthirsty  instinct  inherent  in 
the  Congolese  black.  This  is  notoriously  true;  and 
it  has  had  a  gravely  adverse  effect,  too,  upon  the 
population  of  the  Soudan,  with  regard  to  which  the 
statements  in  Lord  Cromer's  report  of  1893  are 
conclusive. 

Vice -Governor-General  Fuchs,  always  seeking  to 
improve  the  governmental  machinery  of  the  Congo 

Free  State,  has  recently  made  the  following 
Remedies     Suggestions,  which,  if  adopted,  he  believes 

would  tend  to  control  the  migratory  nature 
of  the  subjects  over  whom  he  so  intelligently  rules: 

I  think  that  it  would  be  opportune  to  pass  the  necessary 
legislative  measures,  so  that  an  end  may  be  put  to  this  col- 
lective kind  of  vagabondage.  The  administrative  authority 
finds  itself  at  present  unarmed,  the  Congo  courts  having  de- 
clared the  absolute  right  of  the  native  to  move  about  and  to 
dwell  where  he  likes.  But  it  appears  to  me  that  public  order 
is  directly  interested  in  having  these  emigrations  in  a  mass, 
from  region  to  region  in  the  interior  of  the  country,  regulated 
by  law.  This  regulation  would  also  result  in  assured  stability 
for  a  fair  distribution  of  native  taxes.  It  would  also  facilitate 
the  establishment  of  definite  and  permanent  means  of  com- 
munication throughout  the  country. 

There  is,  however,  still  a  special  case  to  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration. Some  natives  on  removing  in  this  way  are  ready 
to  establish  themselves  on  the  territorv  of  one  or  other  of 


Displacement  of  the  Population  227 

those  Sultans  whose  native  authority  extends  beyond,  as 
well  as  within,  the  political  frontiers  of  the  State.  The 
determination  of  the_sovereign  power  such  individuals  may 
wield  might,  owing  to  the  silence  of  our  laws,  not  be  without 
future  difficulty,  when,  for  instance.  Sultans,  established  on 
foreign  territory  and  dependent  themselves  for  it  on  foreign 
power,  are  concerned.  It  would  be  well  if  all  doubtful  ele- 
ments were  removed  by  a  decree  which  in  a  general  manner 
might  establish  the  principle  that  every  native  of  Congolese 
origin  who,  by  naturalisation  or  otherwise,  shall  endeavour 
to  modify  his  national  status,  will  still  be  considered  as  a 
subject  of  the  Congo  State,  and  remain  amenable  to  Congolese 
law,  so  long  as  he  shall  reside,  in  fact,  within  the  limits  of 
the  State  territory. 

From  this  it  will  be  observed  that  in  addition  to 
the  numerous  other  difficulties  with  which  the  new 
State  has  to  contend,  it  is  now  called  upon  to  legis- 
late for  the  solution  of  a  problem  which  the  State's 
detractors  have  distorted  and  misrepresented  as  a 
result  of  the  State's  cruel  system  of  government. 

The  importance  of  this  question  cannot  be  over- 
stated, as  it  forms  a  great  hindrance  to  the  proper 
organisation  of  so  vast  a  territory  as  the  Congo 
Basin.  That  the  potentialities  of  King  Leopold's 
beneficent  rule  in  Central  Africa  will  eventually 
legislate  wisely,  and  permanently  abolish  this 
native  inconsistency,  no  one  who  has  observed  the 
intelligent  governmental  genius  of  the  State  can 
doubt. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
THE  STATE'S  ADMINISTRATION 
JUSTICE — NATIVE    CHIEFTAINCIES 

TO  provide  a  just  and  equitable  process  for  giving 
effect  to  the  civil  laws  of  a  savage  country 
requires  an  administrant  force  of  exceptional 
powers,  of  rare  patience,  and  of  wide  sympathies. 
Highly  civilised  communities  largely  govern  them- 
selves by  the  aggregate  contribution  and 
Problem,  example  of  all  orderly  persons.  The  very 
momentum  of  their  civilisation  and  the  hab- 
its and  tendencies  of  a  cultured  people  conduce  to  the 
observance  of  law  and  the  tranquillity  of  the  social 
life  to  which  the  law  applies.  Rules  of  State  and 
municipal  procedure  for  the  government  of  European 
countries  have,  by  use  and  the  experience  of  time, 
long  ago  attained  to  an  automatic  operation.  The 
social  phenomena  of  all  civilised  communities  are 
well  established,  and  they  form  part  of  that  large 
body  of  academic  theory  called  social  science.  The 
development  of  human  society  has  its  constitution 
and  its  philosophy,  yet  those  who  are  charged,  by 
a  duty  arising  from  exceptional  circumstances,  to 
apply  social  and  political  principles  to  savage  tribes 
distantly  situated  from  all  civilising  contact  with 

228 


a* 


m 


The  State's  Administration  229 

human  beings  of  superior  attainment,  are  charged 
with  a  task  of  unknown  and  multiform  difficulty. 

The  characteristic  thoroughness  with  which  the 
Belgians  have  established  their  administrative  ma- 
chinery in  the  Congo  Free  State  is  apparent  in  the 
latest  report  (July,  1904)  of  Vice-Govemor-General 
Fuchs,  the  acting  head  of  that  Government.  Mon- 
sieur Fuchs  has  had  twenty  years'  experience  in  Cent- 
ral Africa.  He  is,  perhaps,  the  best-qualified  living 
colonial  official  dealing  with  the  black  races  of  the 
African  Continent.  The  great  progress  of  the  coun- 
try he  governs,  and  the  moral  and  material  better- 
ment of  the  tribes  which  thrive  under  his  liberal  rule, 
are  astonishingly  revealed  in  the  report  from  which 
the  following  quotations  are  made : 

The  development  of  the  State  administration  is  attested 
in  a  general  wav  by  the  ever-increasing  number  of  Posts  of 
different  kinds  that  are  in  operation  irr  its  territories. 

Thus  there  are  at  the  present  time  233  Posts  and  Stations, 
all  of  them  under  the  command  of  white  men,  scattered  over 
tlie  14  districts. 

The  European  staff  attached  to  the  services  of  the  districts 
mentioned  is  distributed  as  follows: 


Organic  Staff 294 

Service  of  Justice 57 

Administrative  Service 115 

Medical  Service 27 

Service  of  Public  Works 92 

Service  of  Agriculture 89 

Service  of  Finance 74 

The  Public  Force 490 

Service  of  the  Marine 166 

Various 20 

Total 1424 


230  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  number  of  blacks  attached  to  the  different  services  of 
the  districts  is  about  20,000  men. 

I  here  render  justice  to  the  zeal  and  devotion  of  the  servants 
of  the  State;  besides  Belgians,  who  form  the  great  majority, 
they  also  comprise  Italians,  Swiss,  Scandinavians,  Germans, 
English,  etc.,  according  to  the  following  order: 

Belgians,  898;  Italians,  197  ;  Swiss,  89;  Swedes,  86;  Danes, 
34;  Germans,  31;  Norwegians,  22;  Finns,  19;  English,  16; 
Dutch,  9;  Russians,  5;  French,  4;  Austrians,  3 ;  Americans, 
2;  Turks,  2;  Lvucemburgers,  2;  Portuguese,  2;  Greeks,  i; 
Spaniards,  i ;  Cubans,  i ;  total,  1424. 

To  whatever  nationality  they  belong  they  vie  with  each 
other  in  the  ardour  with  which  they  perform  their  numerous 
duties.  All  are  penetrated  with  the  greatness  of  their  role  in 
the  heart  of  savagery,  and  impelled  by  the  noblest  emulation 
compete  in  the  gradual  realisation  of  our  civilising  work. 
Numerous  are  the  testimonies  that  I  have  collected  during 
my  last  official  tour  of  their  fruitful  activity  exercising  it- 
self in  all  directions,  of  their  protecting  benevolence  with 
regard  to  the  natives;  and  these  testimonies  emanate  from 
missionaries,  from  learned  men,  from  travellers,  and  even 
from  persons  inclined  rather  to  criticise  than  to  praise  our 
works. 

In  order  that  this  staff  may  become  more  experienced,  by 
acquiring  progressively  a  knowledge  of  the  country,  its  re- 
sources, and  its  inhabitants,  it  has  been  particularly  recom- 
mended to  the  agents  composing  it  that  they  should  learn  the 
native  dialects.  Knowledge  of  the  local  idioms  is,  indeed, 
indispensable  to  the  European  who  seeks  to  enter  into  di- 
rect relations  with  the  blacks — to  study  their  manners  and 
customs,  and  by  that  means  take  account  of  the  measures 
to  employ  for  the  introduction  and  development  of  our 
ideas  of  civilisation. 

The  judicial  statistics  show  the  vigilance  and  impartiality 
with  which  the  Parquet  (Public  Ministry  corresponding  to 
our  Public  Prosecutor)  inquires  into  breaches  of  the  law, 
no  matter  who  their  authors  may  be,  and  aims  at  allowing  no 
offence  to  remain    unpunished.     If  some    faults    have   been 


The  State's  Administration  231 

committed   by  our  agents,  the   guilty  have  been  prosecuted 
conformably  to  the  law. 

The  attention  of  the  members  of  the  service  besides  has 
been  frequently  called  to  the  consequences  which  would  result 
for  them  from  transgressing  the  laws  and  instructions  of  the 
Government.  In  order  to  ensure  their  faithful  and  complete 
execution,  the  Government  has  just  again  added  to  the  staff 
of  superior  officials  new  State  Inspectors. 

DEPARTMENT    OF    JUSTICE 

The  magistrates  by  profession  number  at  the  present  time 
32;  they  are  assisted  by  25  judicial  agents  properly  so  called. 

The  judicial  services  of  Boma,  to  which  are  attached  seven 
magistrates  by  profession,  and  a  dozen  judicial  agents,  allow 
of: 

1.  An  Appeal  Court,  composed  of  a  President  and  two 
judges,  of  the  State  Prosecutor  who  occupies  the  seat  of  the 
Public  Minister  on  this  jurisdiction,  and  of  a  Registrar; 

2.  A  Council  of  War  in  Appeal,  the  presidency  of  which 
devolves  on  the  President  of  the  Appeal  Court,  of  two  judges, 
officers  of  the  Public  Force,  of  the  State  Prosecutor,  and  of  a 
Registrar ; 

3.  A  Court  of  First  Instance,  composed  of  a  professional 
judge,  of  a  substitute,  a  doctor  of  laws,  and  of  a  Registrar; 

4.  A  Council  of  War  of  First  Instance,  composed  of  a 
judge,  officer  of  the  Public  Force,  of  the  substitute  attached 
to  the  Court  of  First  Instance,  and  of  a  Registrar. 

These  four  jurisdictions  are  competent  in  penal  cases. 
Those  occurring  under  i  and  3  are  competent  also  in  civil  and 
commercial  matters.  They  sit  in  such  cases  without  the 
Public  Minister.  A  report  of  the  Registrar  of  the  Court  of 
First  Instance  attached  to  this  sets  forth  the  order  of  civil 
business. 

The  other  professional  magistrates  are  distributed  between 
the  territorial  courts  and  the  councils  of  war. 

Territorial  courts  exist  at  Matadi,  Leopoldville,  Popokab- 
aka,  Coquilhatville,  New  Antwerp,  Basoko,  Stanleyville,  Toa 


232  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

(Albertville),  Lukafu,  Kabinda  (Katanga),  Lusambo,  and  at 
the  chief  place  of  the  Rusisi-Kivu  zone  (Uvira),  independ- 
ently of  the  councils  of  war,  which  will  be  shortly  replaced  by 
ordinary  courts  as  the  number  of  magistrates  is  increased. 
The  Parquet  attached  to  these  courts  is  represented  by  the 
substitutes  of  the  State  Prosecutor,  all  of  whom  are  doctors 
of  laws. 

Among  the  following  officials  of  judicial  rank  the  majority 
are  Belgians.  There  are  also  Italians,  Danes,  Swiss,  and  Nor- 
wegians. 

President  of  Court  of  Appeal:  Baron  G.  Nisco. 

Judges,  Court  of  Appeal:  M.  Horstmans,  M.  A.  Gohr. 

Judge,  Court  of  First  Instance:  M.  T.  Beeckman. 

Prosecuting  Attorney:  M.  F.  Waleffe. 

Director:  M.  A.  Gohr. 

Magistrates  {Territorial  Judges  and  Substitutes):  Ernest  Dupont,  Her- 
mann Weber,  Iwan  Grenade,  Louis  Rossi,  J.  Jenniges,  P.  Vincart, 
C.  M.  B.  L.  Greban  de  St.  Germain,  Stanislas  Lefranc,  Martin 
Rutten,  Albert  Sweerts,  Robert  de  Meulemeester,  Michel  Cucini- 
ello,  Angelo  Cagginla,  Mario  Falcetti,  Gennaro  Bosco,  Frederic 
Erdrich,  Manlio  Scarpari,  F.  J.  S.  M.  Lambin,  Torquato  Polimante, 
Loviis  Tessaroli,  Paul  Bossolo,  T.  C.  Lund,  H.  G.  Moth-Borgliim, 
C.  J.  R.  Vandekelder,  A.  A.  A.  Celletti,  C.  E.  A.  M.  Smets,  C.  L. 
Gianpetri,  Jacob  Vogt,  Ragnvald  Koht,  T.  Fessante  Adrien 
Beeckman. 

The  administration  of  justice  shows  that  its  representatives 
are  conscious  of  the  responsibility  of  their  mission.  No  one 
has  ever  been  able  to  impugn  its  impartiality  and  independ- 
ence, and  the  judgments  and  sentences  awarded  establish  its 
qnxiety  to  reach  all  the  guilty,  and  not  to  leave  unpunished 
any  breach  of  the  laws  for  the  protection  of  the  natives.  I 
will  not  mention  any  other  examples  of  this  than  the  judg- 
ments recently  pronounced  against  the  agents  of  a  trading 
company,  upon  whom  heavy  sentences  of  penal  servitude 
were  passed  for  crimes  committed  upon  natives.  The  tribute 
which  the  Government  on  that  occasion  paid  to  the 
Courts'  sense  of  their  duties  will  be  a  valuable  encouragement 
for    them.     I  am  confident  that  the   Government's    appeal 


The  State's  Administration  233 

to  the  vigilance  of  the  Department  of  PubHc  Prosecution  to 
prevent  any  offence  of  the  kind  passing  unpunished  will  not 
be  in  vain. 

The  superior  administration  of  Boma  is  instructed  to  follow 
the  principle  of  bringing  before  the  competent  courts  all 
cases  of  abuses  of  natives  that  are  pointed  out  to  it  by  the 
authorities,  by  the  direct  complaints  of  residents  in  the 
Congo,  or  by  criticisms  in  the  press.  These  last  accusa- 
tions, the  frequency  of  which  is  found  to  coincide  with 
the  campaign  conducted  against  the  Congo  State,  are  regu- 
larly submitted  on  the  spot  to  careful  examination  in  detail. 
The  impression  that  is  left  by  the  investigations  that  have 
been  made,  and  some  of  which  are  still  unfinished,  is  that 
as  a  general  rule  the  complaints  formulated  are  wanting 
in  the  precision  necessary  to  fix  the  responsibility,  if  any, 
for  them;  or  that  they  rest  exclusively  on  the  gossip  and 
statements  of  natives  which  have  not  been  sufficiently  veri- 
fied. In  this  latter  respect  a  long  experience  of  African 
affairs  has  shown  me  with  what   circumspection, 

not  to  sav  with  what  distrust,  the   statements  of 

as  a 

the  blacks  must  be  accepted.  Their  peculiar  Witness, 
mental  characteristic  renders  them  inclined  to 
lie  with  an  ease  that  is  disconcerting,  and  magistrates  are 
obliged  to  direct  their  inquiries  and  questionings  with  real 
skill  and  untiring  patience  in  order  to  arrive  at  the  truth 
amongst  the  inaccuracies  and  omissions  of  coloured  witnesses. 
That  will  reveal  how  much  and  how  often  the  stories  of 
sensational  facts  circulated  by  natives  are  distorted  by  them, 
when  they  are  not  absolutely  invented,  and  what  disappoint- 
ments those  who  accept  them  too  easily  prepare  for  them- 
selves. A  typical  case  is  that  of  a  Protestant  missionary 
who  was  accused  by  natives  of  having  inflicted  on  the 
l)lack  engineer  of  his  mission's  steamer  blows  and  wounds 
that  caused  his  death.  The  judicial  investigation  disposed 
of  this  charge,  which  had  been  fabricated  in  all  its  details 
by  the  natives  with  the  view  of  avenging  themselves  on  the 
missionary,  with  whom  they  were  engaged  in  a  dispute  on  a 


234  Story  of  the  Congo  r>cc  State 

question  of  wages.  And  yet  the  natives  making  the  accusa- 
tion never  ceased  for  a  moment,  despite  the  proofs  to  the 
contrary,  from  maintaining  their  lying  charges  with  a  per- 
sistency which  could  not  fail  to  create  an  impression.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  Casement '  was  not  put  on  his  guard 
against  the  statements  of  the  blacks,  and  especially  by  this 
incident,  of  which  he  could  not  have  been  ignorant,  since  the 
missionary  concerned  accompanied  him  during  the  inquiry  into 
the  case  of  Epondo,  whom  the  natives  also  represented  to  have 
been  the  victim  of  a  criminal  act. 

I  will,  by  another  example  revealed  during  a  recent  in- 
quiry, show  how  much  the  charges  brought  against  the  Ad- 
ministration of  the  State  are  wanting  in  prudence.  Some 
correspondence  from  a  missionary  published  in  England  has 
given  rise  to  violent  comments  in  the  press  of  that  country 
upon  the  Congo  Free  State.  When  invited  by  the  State 
Prosecutor  to  formulate  and  present  his  charges,  this  mis- 
sionary did  not  allege  anything  against  the  State  agent, 
whom,  in  his  writings  he  had  charged  with  responsibility 
for  odious  crimes.  He  had  invoked,  as  corroborating  his 
own  statement,  the  affirmations  that  other  European  agents 
had  made  to  him;  he  declared  by  what  follows  that  these 
affirmations  were  to  be  kept  strictly  confidential.  "It  is 
true,"  he  adds,  "that  these  facts  have  been  published,  but 
as  the  publication  was  made  in  England  I  thought  that 
the  confidence  placed  in  my  discretion  was  not  betrayed." 
He  also  declares  that  "before  accepting  the  responsibility 
of  revealing  and  specifying  in  a  precise  manner  the  facts, 
he  desires  to  consult,  and  take  the  opinion  of,  if  not  a  bar- 
rister, at  least  some  one  knowing  Congolese  law,  and  that 
the  extracts  published  of  his  letter  have  not  perhaps  been 
made  with  strict  precision  of  language."  In  short,  the  want 
of  clearness,  the  subterfuges  of  the  examination,  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  State  Prosecutor,  and  left  on  his  mind 
the  most  unfavourable  impression  as  to  the  good   faith  of 

*  His  Britannic  Majesty's  consul,  author  of  the  Report  referred  to 
in  a  succeeding  chapter. 


The  State's  Administration  235 

this  missionary,  and  as  to  his  highly  blameworthy  manner 
of  recognising  the  hospitality  that  he  has  hitherto  enjoyed 
in  the  Congo. 

I  have  entered  into  these  few  details  in  order  to  show  the 
occasionally  inconsiderate  character  of  the  attacks  directed 
against  our  Administration. 

And  I  owe  it  to  truth  to  make  another  reproach,  not  less 
grave,  with  regard  to  certain  foreign  elements  which  do  not 
seem  to  have  an  exact  view  of  their  duty  in  incul- 
cating the  natives  by  their  example  and  teachings  . 
with  the  respect  due  to  the  authority  of  the  State  ^jjg  state, 
and  to  its  representatives.  It  is  impossible  not  to 
be  struck  by  the  strange  rumours  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Pro- 
testant missions,  which  for  some  time  have  been  announcing 
to  the  population  a  change  in  the  established  order,  and  pre- 
dicting the  end  of  the  State.  There  natives  have  been 
seen  to  offer  insults  to  the  European  agents;  officers  of 
the  Companies  have  lodged  complaints  as  to  the  arrogant 
attitude  of  part  of  the  population  subject  to  certain  influ- 
ences; a  tendency  to  shake  off  the  duty  due  to  the  State, 
and  to  repudiate  respect  for  our  laws,  has  manifested  itself 
among  them.  It  is  not  doubtful  that  here  we  see  the  result 
of  the  underhand  intrigues  sapping,  more  or  less  intention- 
ally, the  legal  authority.  The  remark  inevitably  follows  that 
this  position  reveals  itself  solely  in  the  neighbourhood  of  some 
evangelical  posts,  and  it  assumes  a  more  significant  character 
when  it  is  known  that  the  tendency  of  these  establishments  is 
to  exercise  over  the  surrounding  population  a  sort  of  sover- 
eign power,  in  opposition  to  "Boula  M atari, " '  thereby  cre- 
ating a  state  of  antagonism  between  the  influence  of  the 
mission  houses  and  the  authority  of  the  State  agents.  I  have 
pointed  out  for  the  attention  of  the  Government  this  grave 
position,  and  the  measures  that  it  ought  to  take  if  it  con- 
tinues. Already  local  agents  have  been  obliged  to  act  on 
their  own  initiative  to  safeguard  the  State's  authority,  and  if 

'  The  name  which  the  natives  applied  to  Stanley.  It  is  now  used 
to  designate  the  State. 


236         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

it  becomes  necessary  the  Governor-General  will  consider  the 
occasion  for  making  use  of  the  means  placed  at  his  disposal, 
by  the  decree  of  15th  September,  1889,  for  dealing  with  for- 
eigners who  should  employ  against  the  State  their  influence 
over  the  natives. 

It  would  be  desirable  that  an  appropriation  be  provided  to 
carry  out  the  plan  at  present  under  examination,  of  establish- 
ing on  the  Upper  Congo  a  number  of  civil  courts  and  a  second 
Court  of  Appeal. 

In  my  opinion  the  Government  ought  to  go  farther  in  the 
way  of  developing  our  judicial  machinery.  A  point  which  has 
not  ceased  to  attract  attention  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  re- 
cruiting of  the  staff.  Whatever  may  be  the  goodwill  of  the 
judicial  agents,  it  is  beyond  doubt  that  some  newcomers  have 
not  always  possessed,  before  their  entrance  into  our  judiciary, 
a  sufficiently  long  experience  of  judicial  practice.  I  here  renew 
the  wish,  already  expressed,  to  hear  that  judges  of  Belgian 
courts  and  parquets  be  authorised  to  obtain  leave  of  absence 
to  occupy  judicial  posts  in  the  Congo. 

The  spirit  in  which  this  recommendation  by  the 
Vice-Go vemor-General  was  received  in  Belgium  is 
clearly  indicated  in  the  following  announcement  on 
behalf  of  the  Minister  of  Justice  at  Brussels : 

The  Minister  of  Justice  has  just  authorised  Belgian  magis- 
trates who  may  be  desirous  to  do  so,  and  be  accepted  by  the 
Congo  Free  State,  to  undertake,  by  a  limited  engagement,  to 
serve  as  judges  in  the  Congo, — and  for  that  purpose,  to  obtain 
leave  of  absence  without  pay,  save  that  their  rights  of  seniority 
in  the  Belgian  magistracy  are  to  be  reserved. 

The  Congo  has  been  for  us  a  field  of  heroism.  It  has 
enabled  numerous  Belgians,  who  were  smothering  within 
their  frontiers,  to  prove  their  value  in  a  much  broader  sphere, 
where  territorial,  political,  and  diplomatic  conditions  per- 
mitted some  display  of  their  inborn  qualities,  and  to  reveal 
themselves  first-class  pioneers,  soldiers,  and  administrators. 


The  State's  Administration  237 

If  considered  only  from  an  ideal  point  of  view,  this  advant- 
age is  well  worth  something.  And  those  of  our  officers  who 
out  there  have  put  down  slavery,  pacified  the  native  tribes, 
opened  the  ways  of  navigation,  commerce,  and  industry, 
created  agricultural  stations,  depots,  railways,  forest  ex- 
ploitations, and  roads  will  surely  from  this  point  of  view 
alone  have  rendered  our  little  country  as  much  service  as 
they  could  have  rendered  it  in  the  service  of  our  garrisons. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  narrow  frontiers  mean  narrow 
ideas.  To  broaden  our  horizon,  is  to  broaden  our  ideas.  It 
seems  to  us  that  without  going  beyond  these  considerations, 
this  decision  taken  by  our  Department  of  Justice  deserves  to 
be  commended. 

Without  any  burden  on  our  Treasury  on  that  account, — 
since  the  Belgian  judges  serving  in  the  Congo  will,  during  the 
term  of  their  service,  cease  to  draw  upon  our  budget, — our 
magistracy  will  be  losing  nothing  of  their  value,  so  justly  ap- 
preciated, by  delegating  a  few  of  their  members — selected 
from  the  youngest — in  those  new  regions  where  their  know- 
ledge of  law,  coming  into  more  direct  contact  than  at  home 
with  nature  and  practical  needs,  will  acquire  renewed  strength 
at  the  very  springs  of  equity  and  juridical  conscience. 

At  the  same  time,  their  authoritative  participation  in  the 
colonial  undertaking  will  contribute  to  do  away  with  the  very 
suspicion  of  those  abuses  which,  after  being  systematically 
exaggerated  by  interested  opponents,  have  been  used  as  a 
pretence  for  this  deplorable  Congophobe  campaign  which 
has  led  av/ay  in  England  a  few  minds  more  generous  than 
enlightened. 

Fortified  in  this  manner,  the  Congolese  magistrates,  who 
even  now  worthily  bear  comparison  with  any  colonial  magis- 
tracy, will,  by  the  mode  of  their  recruitment,  and  their  own 
merit,  command  respect  from  our  adversaries. 

They  will  be  continually  renewed,  which  is  advisable  in 
these  tropical  regions,  where  the  conditions  of  climate  very 
soon  exhaust  individuals,  and  the  new  and  continued  re- 
lations   which    will    thus    progressively   spring   up   between 


238         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Belgium  at  home  and  its  African  extension  will  contribute  to 
force  into  our  colonial  undertaking  the  best  part  of  our  tradi- 
tions  and  of  our   national   spirit. 

It  would  be  also  useful  if  the  ambulatory  character  attri- 
buted by  Congolese  law  to  the  Courts  of  First  Instance  were 
made  more  effective,  by  rendering  it  an  obligation  for  these 
courts  to  move  about  periodically  throughout  the  extent  of 
their  province,  to  sit  regularly  at  important  centres,  and  to 
betake  themselves  to  all  points  to  which  the  necessities  of 
their  presence  required  them  to  proceed.  This  object  might 
be  easily  attained,  if  only  there  were  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  the  magistrates  the  material  means — with  regard  to  trans- 
port, provisions,  and  lodging — that  the  frequency  of  these 
movements  on  circuit  might  call  for. 

I  would  also  recommend  a  new  measure  which  would  con- 
sist in  establishing  in  the  different  jurisdictions  a  corps  of 
special  agents  who  should  be  remunerated  by  the  Govern- 
ment, and  whose  mission  would  be  to  discharge  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  natives  the  role  of  barristers.  At  present  it  is  to 
the  magistrates  themselves  that  the  native  addresses  himself 
in  order  to  obtain  the  necessary  counsel  for  the  protection  of 
his  rights.  It  would  be  preferable  that  those  who  may  be 
called  upon  to  lay  down  the  law  on  a  conflict  of  civil  right, 
should  not  fill  also  the  post  of  being  counsel  to  one  of  the 
parties.  On  the  other  hand,  from  the  penal  point  of  view  the 
measure  that  I  propose  would  permit  of  professional  defend- 
ers being  assured  to  the  accused.  This  institution,  which  it 
would  be  necessary  to  render  of  as  general  application  as 
possible  in  the  Upper  as  in  the  Lower  Congo,  would  thus  place 
on  the  spot,  at  the  disposition  of  those  natives  who  thought  they 
had  ground  of  complaint,  gratuitous  defenders  of  their  interests. 

Indeed  it  would  be  useful  to  constitute  in  Belgium  a  Court 
of  Cassation  to  which  the  sentences  and  definite  judgments  in 
penal  matters  which  might  possibly  be  contrary  to  the  law 
should  be  submitted.  Such  a  court  might  be  composed  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Belgian  Court  of  Cassation,  or  of  the  Appeal  Courts 
admitted  to  the  grade  of  emeritus,  or  actually  practising. 


it! 


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The  State's  Administration  239 

It  will  certainly  seem  natural  that  these  different  opportu- 
nities of  co-operating  in  the  Congolese  work  should  be  given 
to  the  Belgian  magistracy.  Belgium  would  see  therein,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  the  occasion  of  drawing  closer  the  links  of  a 
moral  nature  which  already  unite  it  to  its  future  colony,  and 
the  mission  not  without  distinction  which  Belgian  officers 
have  fulfilled  and  are  fulfilling  in  Africa  would  find  its  com- 
plement in  the  collaboration  of  jurists  of  merit  who  can  be 
counted  in  our  country  in  great  numbers. 

NATIVE    CHIEFTAINCIES 

The  institution  of  native  chieftaincies,  due  to  the  decree  of 
6th  October,  1891,  realises  an  idea  too  just  and  too  politic  for 
it  not  to  receive  all  the  extension  possible.  If  during  the  first 
days  that  followed  the  promulgation  of  that  decree  the  dis- 
trict Commissioners  displayed  praiseworthy  emulation  in 
recognising  native  chieftaincies,  it  is  not  less  certain  that  these 
have  not  rendered,  up  to  the  present,  all  the  services  which 
we  could  expect,  so  far  as  they  were  called  upon  to  create 
between  the  European  authority  and  the  natives  a  natural 
intermediary,  having  its  duties  and  responsibilities,  and  cal- 
culated to  facilitate  the  action  of  the  Government. 

The  cases  in  which  it  has  been  applied  still  show  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  system  and  testify  to  the  greater  facility  with 
which  the  natives  rally  to  the  new  order  of  things  when  it  is 
personified  in  their  eyes  by  the  chief  whom  they  have  always 
recognised.  It  is  proved  that  respect  for  the  orders  of  au- 
thority, obedience  to  the  laws,  the  execution  of  legal  obliga- 
tions, such  as  military  recruiting  and  the  payment  of  taxes, — 
in  a  word  the  principles  of  an  organised  social  state,  are  more 
easily  accepted  by  the  natives  forming  part  of  a  chieftaincy 
than  by  those  who  are  quite  independent.  The  chiefs,  be- 
sides, have  generally  a  real  influence  over  the  population,  and 
thus,  as  has  several  times  been  said,  if  they  feel  themselves 
supported  they  will  succeed  in  making  our  ideas  prevail  and 
in  imposing  them  on  the  natives  through  our  support. 

Another  appeal  has  just  been  quite  recently  made  by  the 


240         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

local  government  to  all  the  chiefs  of  districts  and  zones  in 
order  to  inspire  them  with  these  views,  and  so  that  they  may 
increase  the  official  chieftaincies  to  a  great  extent. 

The  instructions  issued  are  inspired  by  a  double  object:  to 
maintain  and  even  to  extend  the  authority  of  the  chiefs  over 
their  subjects,  to  avoid  all  intervention  in  the  internal  affairs  of 
the  tribes  which  would  be  of  a  nature  to  compromise  the  pres- 
tige of  that  authority. 

"It  is  the  right  of  the  chief,"  these  instructions  declare, 
"to  assure  the  execution  of  his  orders  according  to  native 
rules  and  particularly  to  bring  to  his  decision  the  sanction 
demanded  by  native  custom." 

The  only  restriction  on  the  authority  of  the  recognised 
native  chiefs  lies  in  the  necessity  for  them  not  to  run  counter, 
in  the  decisions  taken,  to  public  order,  that  is  to  say,  principles 
which  are  at  the  base  of  the  organisation  of  society,  as  it  is 
comprehended  and  wished  to  be  by  the  legislator. 

The  chief's  authority  ceases  as  soon  as  the  measures  taken 
are  contrary  to  that  public  order. 

Thus,  in  matters  of  private  right,  the  native  chief  could  not 
legitimately  take  any  course  which  would  assail  the  organisa- 
tion of  families  constituted  under  the  regime  of  the  civil  Code, 
and  according  to  its  prescribed  form, — in  other  words,  entered 
on  the  European  statute. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  could  not  establish  slavery,  oppose 
religious  liberties  or  commercial  liberty,  or  order  acts  con- 
trary to  the  penal  law. 

Still  it  is  necessary  to  remark  that  he  may  employ  coercive 
and  repressive  measures  to  ensure,  as  chief,  and  within  the  limits 
of  his  power  according  to  custom,  the  execution  of  his  orders. 

But  this  sanction  itself  would  be  contrary  to  public  order 
if  its  character  differed  from  our  ideas  of  what  repression 
should  be,  more  especially  if  it  were  accompanied  by  torture, 
mutilation,  or  other  acts  of  cruelty,  or  if  it  were  surrounded 
with  superstitious  practices,  such  as  the  proof  by  poison;  in 
a  word,  if  it  were  really  to  run  counter  to  our  ideas  of  humanity 
and  the  civilising  object  of  the  State. 


The  State's  Administration  241 

Corporal  punishments,  similar  to  those  employed  by  the 
State  and  in  a  similar  measure  to  what  is  employed  by  it,  in- 
flicted by  the  native  chief  according  to  custom,  would  evi- 
dently not  be  contrary  to  public  order. 

Such  are  the  regulations  set  forth  in  a  general  way  which 
govern  the  258  recognised  native  chiefs  in  their  participation 
with  the  political  life  of  the  State. 

These  instructions  recommend  to  the  territorial  authorities 
"continual  relations  with  the  native  chiefs,  incessant  instruc- 
tions and  recommendations,  a  direction  and  control  without 
interruption,  and  a  moral  and  material  support  in  order  to 
maintain  and  increase  the  chief's  authority  with  a  similar 
object,"  and  to  the  judicial  authorities  "an  intervention 
marked  by  prudence  in  order  not  to  diminish  uselessly  the 
chief's  authority,  and  not  to  destroy,  or  even  weaken,  the  in- 
fluence that  he  should  have,  and  of  which  the  Government 
means  to  make  use  for  the  spread  of  civilisation." 

The  care  of  maintaining  intact  and  of  developing  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  chief's  authority  might  perhaps  one  day  be  carried 
farther.  It  would  indeed  be  permissible  to  wish  that,  in  the 
future,  all  the  decisions  of  an  administrative  and  judicial  char- 
acter, passed  by  the  European  authorities  themselves,  should 
be  executed  by  the  intermediar}^  of  the  recognised  chief;  in 
other  words,  the  native  would  receive  orders  only  from  his 
natural  chief. 

This  measure,  when  it  becomes  possible,  will  produce  the 
best  results  with  regard  to  order  and  discipline,  the  natives 
being  less  inclined  to  rebel  against  the  orders  of  the  chief 
whom  they  have  freely  chosen.  ' 

In  order  to  avoid  the  abuse  which  might  result  from  ignor- 
ance of  our  laws,  and  to  make  the  native  chief  acquainted 
with  his  rights,  there  should  be  attached  to  the  proces  ver- 
banx  of  investitute  of  the  chiefs  a  protocol  setting  forth  the 
penalties  that  it  will  be  permissible  for  the  local  authorities  to 
continue  to  apply,  as  in  the  past,  with  a  specific  mention  of 
the  offences  subject  to  their  jurisdiction. 

They  will  be  made  acquainted  with  this  act  on  their  investi- 
16 


242  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

ture,  at  the  same  time  as  they  are  instructed  as  to  the  general 
obligations  imposed  on  them  by  the  State,  and  which  should 
also  figure  in  the  document  in  question. 

All  that  precedes  evidently  relates  only  to  native  chiefs 
properly  so-called,  and  not  to  the  present  sultans  who,  as 
prescribed  by  the  Government's  instructions,  must  not  have 
the  authority  which  they  at  present  possess  increased. 


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CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  POSTAL,  TELEGRAPH,  AND  TELEPHONE 

SERVICE 

MODERNS  regard  the  post-office  and  the  mis- 
sion school  as  substantial   signs  of  civilisa- 
tion wherever  the  two  are  found  in  mutual 
endeavour.      In  compliance  with  Article  VII,  of  the 
General   Act    of    Berlin,    the   Congo    Free  Twin 

State  joined  the  Postal  Union,  and  has  sent    CiviUsers. 
official  representatives  to  its  periodic  congresses. 

In  the  Belgian  Congo  the  postal  service  is  very 
efficient.  It  already  penetrates  to  districts  most 
remote  from  the  central  office  at  Boma.  It  was  ef- 
fectively established  in  1885  when  the  irregular  ser- 
vice was  succeeded  by  the  rudiments  of  the  present 
system.  In  1887  it  was,  in  fact,  a  piece  of  perfect 
governmental  machinery.  On  the  28th  of  February 
that  year  it  signed  a  formal  Postal  Convention  with 
Belgium.  It  was  soon  thereafter  apparent  that  a 
postal  money-order  service  was  required  to  facilitate 
the  transit  of  small  sums  between  Europe  and  the 
Congo.  Agreements  in  this  respect  were  made  with 
Belgium  on  May  13,  1893,  ^^^  November  24,  1898. 
The  rapid  development  of  the  Congo  Basin  already 
calls  for  even  further  extension  of  the  system. 

243 


244  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  latest  report  on  the  subject  is  that  of  Vice- 
Govemor-General  Fuchs,  which  follows: 

POSTAL    SERVICE 

There  are  at  present  on  the  Congo:  23  post-offices,  sub- 
post-offices,  and  depots  for  stamps. 

According  to  the  returns  before  me,  there  were  transported 
in  1885  only  33,140  letters  and  printed  objects,  whereas  for 
1902  the  postal  movement  was  represented  by  372,007  letters 
and  printed  objects. 

Correspondence  is  conveyed  by  either  railway  or  steamer; 
on  the  roads  it  is  forwarded  to  its  destination  by  special  native 
couriers. 

The  weight  of  the  despatches  enclosing  letters  and  printed 
matter  may  not  exceed,  for  transport  by  land,  10  kilogrammes.^ 
The  porters  required  for  this  service  are  furnished  by  the 
chiefs  of  posts. 

The  transmission  of  correspondence  into  the  interior  of  the 
country  is,  besides,  regulated  by  instructions,  to  which  the  lo- 
cal authorities  frequently  draw  the  serious  attention  of  the 
territorial  chiefs.  Thus,  in  all  parts  of  the  State  territory,  the 
couriers  must  leave  on  a  fixed  day,  and  they  have  a  certain 
time,  which  has  been  calculated  after  much  experience  as 
sufficient,  for  the  journey  from  one  point  to  another. 

It  is  expressly  forbidden  to  the  authorities  to  detain  the 
native  couriers  after  the  date  fixed  for  their  departure,  or 
to  entrust  them  with  correspondence  not  sealed.  All  postal 
packages  must  be  paid  for  (with  the  exception  that  certain 
officials  have  the  right  to  post  free)  and  enclosed  in  a  sealed 
envelope  having  the  address  clearly  shown. 

Each  postal  despatch  contains  a  ticket  of  advice  which  is  to 
be  returned  to  the  originating  office,  dated  and  signed  by  the 
agent  of  the  office  that  received  it,  after  he  has  found  the  con- 
tents exact.  The  carrier  of  the  mail  is  also  in  possession  of  a 
route  ticket  which  informs  him  of  the  number  of  sacks  and 
envelopes  composing  the  mail.    It  must  be  checked  and  dated, 

'About  22  lbs. 


Postal,  Telegraph,  and  Telephone  Service    245 

and  must  show  in  a  special  column,  for  the  way  out  and  back 
and  for  each  station,  the  hour  of  the  arrival  and  departure  of 
the  couriers. 

The  sub-controllers  of  the  post-oflfices  must  forward  each 
month,  for  the  purpose  of  verification,  to  the  Controller  of  the 
post-ofhce  at  Boma,  the  route  tickets  of  the  couriers  sent 
during  the  previous  month. 

The  Director  of  Finance  sends,  as  often  as  possible,  the 
Controller  of  the  Post-Office  to  examine  the  accounts  of  the 
various  offices  which  are  run  by  selected  agents  appointed 
from  the  Belgian  administration. 

In  districts  where  sub-post-offices  are  established,  the  Dis- 
trict Commissioner  sees  to  the  strict  observance  of  the  in- 
structions regulating  the  important  postal  service. 

It  has  been  found  that  in  several  districts  the  services  of 
soldiers  in  the  garrison  have  been  utilised  for  the  mails.  Not 
only  did  these  not  always  render  the  services  which  workmen 
or  other  men  specially  engaged  for  the  service  of  transports  of 
all  kinds  render,  but  even  there  was  reason  to  fear  that  the 
soldiers,  on  account  of  their  uniform  and  arms,  as  well  as  being 
without  control,  sometimes  abused  their  powers  to  make  levies 
on  the  villages  through  which  they  passed.  But  now  the 
strict  instructions  of  the  Government  forbid  soldiers  being 
taken  away  from  their  garrison  and  military  duties,  and  re- 
quire that  they  should  always  remain  under  the  control  of 
their  chiefs.  It  has,  therefore,  been  positively  forbidden  to 
send  any  mail  by  soldiers  of  the  Public  Force. 

TELEGRAPH  AND  TELEPHONE  SERVICE 

On  27th  November,  1893,  the  State  ordered  by  decree  the 
first  telegraphic  line,  and  in  July,  1895,  ^  ^^st  wire  was 
stretched  across  the  river;  and  on  15th  September,  1898,  it 
became  possible  to  telephf^ne  and  telegraph  from  Boma  to 
Leopoldville,  or  for  a  distance  of  452  kilometres  (282  miles). 
Later  on,  and  when  the  transport  of  material  had  been  made 
easier  by  the  openmg  of  the  Matadi-Leopoldville  railway,  the 
telegraph  line  was  extended  to  Coquilhatville. 


246         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

At  the  present  moment  there  are  thirteen  telephone  and 
telegraph  offices  working  in  the  State. 

The  principal  offices  and  distance  separating  them  from 
each  other  are: 

Boma-Matadi 52  kilometres 

Matadi-Tumba 185 

Tumba- Leopold  ville 215 

Leopoldville-Kwamouth 233 

Kwamouth-Mopolenge-Yumbi 177 

Yvimbi-Lukolela 121 

Lukolela-Irebu 102 

Irebu-Coquilhatville 114 


Total 1,199  kilometres  ^ 

(nearly  750  miles)  of  development.  This  extensive  telegraph 
and  telephone  line  is  carried  on  iron  posts  from  Boma  to 
Leopold  ville,  and  from  Leopoldville  to  Coquilhatville  the  wire 
is  supported  in  some  places  on  steel  posts,  in  others  on  trees, 
in  the  proportion  approximately  of  4494  steel  posts  and  2782 
trees. 

The  line  has  to  make  two  very  important  crossings  of  water, 
one  across  the  Congo  a  little  above  Underhill  Point  (Hell's 
Kettle),  the  other  across  the  Kassai  near  its  mouth. 

At  the  crossing  of  the  river  at  Underhill  the  wires  are  sup- 
ported by  trellised  steel  towers,  the  piers  of  which  are  distant 
800  metres  from  each  other;  and  they  are  placed  73  and  63 
(2)  metres  ^  respectively  above  the  bed  of  the  river  at  the 
highest  flood. 

The  crossing  of  the  Kassai  is  made  by  two  casts  of  the  line, 
one  being  450  and  the  other  670  metres  in  length.  Fourteen 
steel  towers,  of  36.50  and  of  38.50  metres  in  height,  help 
crossing  the  river.  One  of  the  towers  is  placed  on  an  island, 
and  four  conductors  ensure  the  proper  working  of  the  tele- 
graph line. 

The  camps  of  Lisala  and  Umangi  are  also  connected  by  a 
telephone  line  22  kilometres  in  length.  Besides  a  strong  per- 
manent body  of  native  workers  and  European  linesmen,  the 

*  A  kilometre  is  .621  of  a  mile.  ^  A  metre  is  39.37  inches. 


PQ 


CO 


Postal,  Telegraph,  and  Telephone  Service    247 

line  is  maintained  by  the  natives  of  the  villages  through  which 
it  passes.  The  natives  receive  ample  compensation  in  monthly 
payments. 

Another  telegraph  and  telephone  line  of  about  320  kilo- 
metres, which  leaves  Kassongo  on  the  Lualaba  for  Baraka  on 
Lake  Tanganyika,  was  opened  on  5th  December,  1903.  It 
connects  the  telegraph  and  telephone  offices  of  Kassongo,  Ka- 
bambare,  Kalembe-Lembe,  Baraka.  This  line  will  be  ex- 
tended to  Lake  Kivu,  in  the  extreme  eastern  part  of  the  Free 
State. 

For  about  two  years  past  experiments  have  been  in  progress 
to  establish  communication  by  wireless  telegraphy  between 
Banana  and  Ambrizette,  so  as  to  connect  the  Congolese  sys- 
tem with  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Telegrams  for  Europe  are  at  present  brought  either  by  the 
State  steamers  or  by  ocean  steamers  from  Boma  to  St.  Paul 
de  Loanda,  to  San  Thome,  and  to  Sierra  Leone,  whence  they 
are  transmitted  to  their  destination.  Telegrams  can  also  be 
sent  from  the  Congo  for  Europe  by  the  French  route  of  the 
Gaboon  by  taking  them  to  the  French  office  of  Brazzaville. 
A  convention  recently  established  between  the  French  Repub- 
lic and  the  Government  of  the  Congo  Independent  State  will 
allow  the  telegraphic  systems  of  the  two  States  to  be  con- 
nected by  sinking  a  cable  in  Stanley  Pool  between  Brazzaville 
and  Kinshassa.  This  work  finished,  the  Congo  State  will  be 
connected  with  the  telegraphic  system  of  the  globe. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
NAVIGATION,  RAILWAYS,  ROADS 

THE  Sovereign  of  the  Congo  Free  State  adheres 
to  a  gospel  of  labour  of  which  he  is  personally 
the  greatest  exemplar  in  Europe.     His  Maj- 
esty's industry  is  in  motion   at   five  o'clock  every 
morning.    It  gathers  force  as  the  sun  rises,  and  sub- 
sides only  when  his  ministers  and  attend- 
The  strenu- ^^^g  have  retired.     In  this  respect  much 

ous  Life.  .  ^ 

might  be  written  to  attract  the  world's  ad- 
miration to  a  monarch  who  has  the  false  reputation  in 
America  of  toying  with  time  and  its  tintinnabulation. 
Tremendous  are  the  energies  which  the  King's 
example  inspires,  not  only  in  the  Belgium  which  his 
rule  has  beautified,  and  which  he  has  made  the  least- 
taxed  country  in  Europe,  but  also  in  the  heart  of 
blackest  Africa.  There  are,  in  that  vast  territory, 
manifold  monuments  to  the  infectious  spirit  of  en- 
deavour which  prevails  in  the  palace  at  Laeken, 
at  Brussels,  and  in  the  lofty  chalet  at  Ostend.  These 
monuments,  by  their  nature,  appear  to  confirm  Bel- 
gian intention  to  occupy  the  future  of  the  Congo 
State  with  structures  of  enduring  substance,  whether 
they  be  material,  political,  ethical,  or  social.  The 
charge,  sometimes  uttered  against  King  Leopold, 
that  his  interest  in  the  Congo  is  merely  what  it  can 
be  made  to  yield  him  during  his  lifetime,  dissolves 

248 


Navigation,  Railways,  Roads  249 

into  the  mist  of  the  slander  it  becomes  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  physical  improvement  going  on,  with 
mighty  strides,  in  Congoland. 

When  the  Congo  Free  State  was  founded,  com- 
munication by  water  with  Europe  was  infrequent 
and  uncomfortable.  Liverpool  and  Lisbon  Benefits 
sent  a  few  ships  at  irregular  intervals.  Later  of  state 
Germany  and  Holland  followed  their  ex-  ■^"^®* 

ample  at  a  time  when  Fuka-Fuka  was  the  farther- 
most settlement  on  the  Congo  coast.  No  means  of 
transport  into  the  interior  existed  except  by  canoes, 
or  by  native  carriers.  To-day  all  this  has  been 
altered  by  Belgian  capital,  skill,  and  industry. 

The  maritime  development  of  the  Congo  began  in 
1 89 1,  when  the  State,  joining  the  commercial  com- 
panies of  the  region,  concluded  an  agreement  with 
certain  German  and  English  steamship  lines  to  estab- 
lish a  monthly  service  between  Antwerp  and  Matadi. 
These  ships  left  Antwerp  on  the  6th  of  each  month 
and  arrived  at  Matadi  in  about  fifteen  days. 

In  1895,  under  the  auspices  of  a  syndicate  com- 
posed of  the  masters  of  these  ships,  there  was  incor- 
porated at  Antwerp  La  Compagnie  Beige  Maritime 
du  Congo,  which  provided  a  monthly  service  of 
steamers  sailing  under  the  Belgian  flag.  The  success 
of  this  enterprise  induced  other  companies  to  engage 
in  the  Congo  trade,  among  them  being  L'Empresa 
Nacional  de  Navigagao,  of  Lisbon;  Les  Chargeurs 
Reunis,  of  Bordeaux,  related  to  Fraissinet  et  Cie.,  of 
Marseilles;  The  Woerman  Line,  of  Hamburg;  The 
African  Steamship  Company,  combined  with  the 
British  and  African  Steam  Navigation  Company. 


250         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Extensive  harbour  works  have  been  erected  at 
Banana,  Boma,  and  Matadi,  and  several  signal  lights 
have  been  placed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  to  in- 
dicate the  entrance  to  the  channel.  The  Lower 
Congo,  from  Banana  to  Matadi,  has  been  charted 
by  buoys,  and  a  pilot  service  has  been  organised  at 
Banana.  The  river  channel  is  being  constantly  im- 
proved by  dredging,  and  Matebe,  which  in  the  dry 
season  was  inaccessible  except  to  small  craft,  is  now 
on  the  line  of  general  navigation.  A  regular  service 
of  steamers  plies  the  Lower  Congo,  and  the  State  boats 
go  regularly  to  Landana  to  meet  the  Portugese  mail. 

In  1890  the  shipping  in  the  ports  of  Banana  and 
Boma  amounted  to  only  166,028  entries,  and  163,716 
departures.  The  present  tonnage  into  and  out  of 
these  ports  is  over  500,000. 

On  the  Upper  Congo  a  large  flotilla  carries  on  an 
excellent  service.  The  State  operates  thirty-two  of 
these  vessels  and  the  companies  about  forty-five, 
besides  which  there  is  a  considerable  number  of 
smaller  craft  belonging  to  private  individuals  and  to 
missions.  The  tonnage  of  the  Upper  Congo  flotilla 
is  1675  tons.  The  marine  service  numbers  166 
whites  and  1300  blacks. 

The  first  steamers  launched  on  the  Upper  Congo 
were  of  only  five  tons,  their  component  parts  having 
been  carried  on  men's  backs  along  caravan  routes 
long  before  the  construction  of  the  railway  of  the 
Cataracts.  Even  before  the  completion  of  the  rail- 
way from  Matadi  to  Stanley  Pool  the  State  had 
launched  twelve  five-ton  boats  on  the  Upper  Congo, 
each  of  which  had  a  capacity  of  nearly  50,000  poimds. 


s 


Navigation,  Railways,  Roads  251 

Besides  these,  the  Government  launched  one  steamer 
of  twenty-three  tons  and  four  of  forty  tons  burden. 

With  the  completion  of  the  railway,  the  necessity 
for  considering  the  weight  of  the  loads  ceased,  and  a 
new  type  of  craft,  the  stem -wheel,  was  chosen.  Its 
system  of  propulsion  offered  greater  advantages 
against  the  variable  conditions  of  navigability  with 
which  the  vessels  had  to  contend.  The  ports  and 
landings  are  in  a  state  of  complete  organisation  at 
numerous  points  on  the  river,  and  cargoes  are  now 
moved  with  great  facility.  At  regular  intervals 
along  the  watercourse,  posts  at  which  Government 
workmen  gather  wood,  supply  the  steamers  with  this 
form  of  fuel.  In  order  that  the  forests  along  the 
banks  may  not  be  denuded,  a  State  law  enforces  the 
replanting  of  trees  as  fast  as  they  are  cut  down. 

In  1896  the  Government  established  a  regular  fort- 
nightly steamship  service  between  Leopoldville  and 
Stanley  Falls.  The  three  steamers,  Brabant,  Hain- 
aut,  and  Flandre,  have  been  assigned  to  this  service. 
The  dates  of  their  departure  from  Stanley  Pool  have 
been  fixed  to  correspond  with  the  dates  of  arrival  of 
European  ships.  In  order  to  ensure  service  on  the 
navigable  stretches  beyond  the  Falls,  steamers  have 
been  launched  on  the  rivers  Lualaba,  Itimbiri,  and 
Ubanghi.  A  sailing  vessel  has  been  launched  on  Lake 
Tanganyika  and  a  steamer  on  the  Nile,  Native 
rowing  crews  have  been  organised  in  many  regions, 
and  their  services  are  often  of  great  vakie.  All  in  all, 
the  102  steamers  plying  the  Congo  River  in  the 
governmental  and  private  service,  the  efficient  port 
facilities,  the  means  of  transport  up  the  navigable 


2=^2 


Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 


affluents,  and  the  hydrographic  surveys  constantly 
going  on  constitute  a  condition  of  colonial  develop- 
ment which  truly  merits  the  commendation  of  Herr 
Von  Puttkamer,  Governor  of  the  Cameroons,  in 
which,  amongst  other  things,  he  vSays:  "The  energy 
and  practical  sense  displayed  here  deserve  the  greatest 
admiration," 

As  the  Congo  steamboat  largely  abolished  the 
laborious  native  carrier  system  through  the  riverain 
districts  of  the  State,  so  has  the  Congo  Railway, 
popularly  known  as  the  Cataracts  Railway,  largely 
contributed  to  relieve  the  black  man,  under  Bel- 
gian rule,  from  lugging  fifty-six  pounds  dead  weight 
through  the  African  jimgle.  The  iron  horse  in 
Central  Africa  has  given  great  momentum  to  the 
industries  of  a  fertile  region.  In  constructing  the 
railway  from  Matadi,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Congo 
River,  to  Stanley  Pool,  traversing  a  distance  of  260 
miles  over  as  tortuous  and  steep  a  route  as  ever  dar- 
ing engineers  ventured  to  follow;  climbing  the  Pal- 
laballa  Mountains  at  gradients  of  150  feet  in  the 
mile,  and  finally  steaming  over  a  summit  17,000  feet 
above  the  sea,  Belgian  skill  has  again  manifested  its 
extraordinary  quality,  a  quality  observed  in  all  that 
it  has  accomplished  in  the  Congo  Basin. 

To  connect  the  navigable  regions  of  the  Lower  and 
the  Upper  Congo  by  a  line  over  the  route  just  indi- 
cated seemed  at  first  to  be  beyond  the  possibility 
of  achievement.  On  July  6,  1898,  after  nine  years 
of  unremitting  toil  and  the  expenditure  of  sixty 
million  francs,  the  line  was  in  complete  and  regular 
operation  through  a  region  which,  on  account  of  its 


Navigation,  Railways,  Roads  253 

picturesque  scenery,  may  be  likened  to  the  Simplon 
Pass  in  Switzerland. 

Without  a  railway  running  round  the  thirty-two 
great  cataracts  which  tumble  furiously  in  their  de- 
scent of  eighty  miles  to  the  sea,  the  Congo  River,  in 
the  opinion  of  Stanley,  would  not  have  much  value 
in  the  development  of  the  Basin. 

The  first  estimate  of  the  cost  of  constructing  the 
line  was  twenty-five  million  francs.  This  was  based 
on  the  surveys  of  Major  Cambier  for  the  Compagnie 
du  Congo  pour  la  Commerce  et  ITndustrie,  which, 
as  early  as  the  year  1887,  had  been  granted  certain 
rights  and  privileges  if  it  would  undertake  to  build 
the  railway.  On  July  29,  1889,  the  Belgian  Chamber 
agreed  to  provide  ten  million  francs  of  the  Company's 
first  capital,  the  remaining  fifteen  million  francs 
having  been  subscribed  chiefly  by  Belgian  investors. 
The  work  so  enthusiastically  undertaken  met  with 
one  setback  after  another,  owing  mainly  to  the  en- 
gineering difficulties  encountered  in  the  rocky  side 
of  the  mountain  of  Pallaballa,  forming  a  spur  of  the 
great  Crystal  range,  the  western  rampart  of  the 
Central  African  plateau.  It  required  four  years  and 
indomitable  perseverance  to  construct  the  section 
of  the  line  from  Matadi  over  the  summit  of  Pal- 
laballa, a  distance  of  onl}^  twent3^-six  miles.  In 
December,  1893,  Colonel  Wahis  opened  this  part  of 
the  line  with  appropriate  ceremonies,  which  many 
Europeans  interested  in  Congo  affairs  attended.  In 
the  Mouvement  Geographiquc  appeared  the  following 
interesting  description  of  this  unique  engineering 
triumph : 


254         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  train,  on  leaving  the  station  of  Matadi,  passes  in  front 
of  the  works  of  the  State  and  the  Belgian  and  Portuguese 
commercial  establishments,  and  debouches  immediately  by 
the  Neck  of  the  Guinea  Fowls  (Col  des  Pintades)  into  the 
Leopold  Ravine,  which  it  crosses  by  a  bridge  of  sixty-five  feet. 
It  follows  for  a  few  minutes  the  right  bank  of  the  ravine,  and 
is  then  on  the  bank  of  the  Congo,  whose  magnificent  panorama 
is  suddenly  exposed.  Here  commences  the  sensational  part 
of  the  journey.  For  four  miles,  first  alongside  the  Congo  and 
then  alongside  the  Mpozo,  the  way  is  hooked  on  to  the  side  of 
the  strong  rock  of  Matadi.  It  mounts  by  a  gentle  incline, 
having  on  its  right  a  perpendicular  rocky  wall,  in  some  places 
seven  hundred  feet  high,  and  on  its  left,  in  the  foreground,  the 
river  rolling  in  rapids ;  and  in  the  background  the  grand  land- 
scape of  the  right  bank,  with  Vivi  and  Mount  Leopold.  At 
the  sixth  kilometre,  where  the  Mpozo  flows  into  the  Congo, 
and  before  entering  the  valley  of  the  former  river,  the  view 
is  exceedingly  grand.  At  this  point  the  railway  is  two  hun- 
dred feet  above  the  river — the  Congo,  enclosed  in  a  gorge, 
rolls  its  tumultuous  waters  with  extreme  rapidity,  as  they 
have  just  made  the  descent  from  the  Falls  of  Yellalla.  On 
the  left,  to  the  north-east,  the  scenery  is  quite  wild.  It  is 
equally  so  to  the  south-east,  while  the  water  is  closed  in  in 
the  narrow  valley  of  the  Mpozo.  It  was  in  these  parts,  at  the 
very  commencement  of  the  work,  that  the  difficulties  were 
the  greatest.  From  the  Leopold  Ravine  to  the  bridge  of  the 
Mpozo,  or  for  over  four  miles,  the  platform  of  the  line  had  to 
be  cut  in  terraces  on  the  side  of  an  immense  rock  of  hard  stone, 
through  the  thick  equatorial  vegetation  which  encumbered 
every  ravine.  Beyond  Sleepy  Kollow  (Ravin  dii  Sommeil), 
and  after  passing  the  ancient  camp  of  Matadi-Mapembe. 
commences  the  famous  ascent  of  Pallaballa.  At  the  tenth 
kilometre  the  line  attains  a  height  of  three  hundred  feet,  or  a 
rise  of  six  hundred  feet  in  four  and  a  half  miles.  Beyond  this 
the  line  traverses  the  Devil's  Ravine  to  reach  the  summit  of 
the  mountain,  one  thousand  seven  hundred  feet,  and  in  the 
course  of  this  part  of  the  work  several  bridges  have  had  to  be 
thrown  across  the  intervening  chasms  or  ravines.     The  whole 


Navigation,  Railways,  Roads  255 

of  this  part  of  the  journey  is  really  inspiring.  The  scenery 
is  grand,  works  of  skill  succeed  each  other  every  minute, 
the  perspective  modifies  itself  to  each  of  the  numerous  curves 
the  road  makes  at  every  passage  across  the  ravines.  The 
railway  ever  ascends,  hanging  on  to  the  mountain,  suspended 
in  places  froin  three  hundred  to  five  hundred  feet  above  the 
bottom  of  the  Devil's  Ravine.  The  engine  blows  with  force 
to  the  very  moment  of  reaching  the  station  of  Pallaballa. 
Here  the  most  interesting  portion  of  the  journey  is  over.  The 
great  difficulties,  the  long  slopes  of  ascent  at  a  maximum 
incline,  recur  no  more. 

It  had  now  become  apparent  that  the  railway 
would  cost  more  than  double  the  sum  originally  es- 
timated. Additional  powers  having  been  granted  to 
the  Company  and  a  tripartite  convention  having 
provided  the  Congo  Free  State  and  the  Belgian 
Government  with  power  to  buy  the  road,  capital 
was  raised  to  bring  the  total  up  to  sixty  million 
francs.  By  an  extension  of  the  time  when  the  Congo 
State  and  Belgium  may  buy  the  line,  the  railway 
Company  has  possession  until  1908, 

The  Cataracts  Railway  has  some  unique  char- 
acteristics. It  maintains  a  first-  and  a  second-class 
car  on  each  train.  Trains  leave  Matadi 
every  other  day.  Persons  returning  from  R^i^Jja'^^ 
the  Congo  refer  to  it  as  the  strangest  as 
well  as  the  most  profitable  railway  line  in  the  world. 
It  runs  the  distance  between  Matadi  and  Stanley  Pool 
in  twenty-four  hours.  First-class  passage  costs  500 
francs,  the  second-class  50  francs.  The  former  is, 
therefore,  at  the  rate  of  40  cents  a  mile.  This,  it 
is  to  be  hoped,  is  at  least  some  compensation  for  the 
great  difficulties  encountered  in  the  construction  of 


256         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  line.  For  the  final  accomplishment  of  what  is 
regarded  in  Europe  as  one  of  the  great  engineer- 
ing feats  in  Africa,  the  energy  and  skill  of  Lieuten- 
ant Thys,  the  original  surveys  of  Major  Cambier, 
and  the  support  of  the  King  and  the  Belgian  Par- 
liament are  largely  to  be  credited.  Outside  as- 
sistance was  almost  entirely  lacking. 

The  Mayumbe  Railway  is  the  second  which  was 
imdertaken  in  the  development  of  the  Congo  Free 
State.  It  connects  Boma  with  Lukula,  eighty  kilo- 
metres (about  fifty-four  miles)  distant,  and  has  been 
in  operation  since  1901.  It  is  narrow  gauge  (0.60 
metre),  while  the  Cataracts  Railway  is  0.70  metre. 

On  the  completion  of  the  Mayumbe  Railway,  the 
State  inspired  the  construction  of  three  lines  of  one- 
metre  gauge,  with  a  total  length  of  1600  kilometres 
(1080  miles).  These  lines  are  being  undertaken  by 
the  Compagnie  des  Chemins  de  Fer  du  Congo  Super- 
ieur  aux  Grands  Lacs  Africains  under  an  agreement 
made  with  the  State  on  January  4,  1902.  The  latest 
report  of  the  Vice -Governor-General  (July,  1904) 
indicates  the  present  stage  to  which  these  lines  and 
others  have  attained: 

A  route  for  a  railroad  from  Stanleyville  to  the  Great  Lakes 
has  been  surveyed.  This  survey  comprehends  a  principal 
trunk  line,  Stanleyville-Bafwaboli-Mawambi-Irumu,  762  kil- 
ometres in  length.  Near  Irumu  the  track  branches  off  in  two 
directions,  one,  Irumu-Mahagi,  of  358  kilometres,  the  other, 
Irumu-Beni,  of  135  kilometres.  At  present  the  surveys  are 
being  made  for  a  track  from  Beni  to  Lake  Tanganyika. 

In  addition,  the  track  has  been  completely  surveyed  for  a 
railway  from  Dufile  to  Redjaf,  following  the  left  bank  of  the 
Nile,  which  would  be  157  kilometres  in  length. 


pq 


Navigation,  Railways,  Roads  257 

This  railway  would  turn  the  unnavigable  part  of  the  river. 

At  this  moment  a  line  is  being  constructed  between  Stan- 
leyville (left  bank)  and  Ponthierville.  This  line  will  be  140 
kilometres  in  length.  The  rails  have  been  placed  over  ten 
kilometres,  and  the  embankment  finished  for  fifty  kilometres. 
This  line  will  permit  of  transports  being  made  on  the  river  above 
Ponthierville.  As  soon  as  this  first  line  is  finished,  others  will 
be  constructed  along  the  unnavigable  parts  of  the  river. 

At  the  present  moment  surveys  are  also  being  made  for  a 
railway  connecting  a  point  on  the  southern  frontier  of  the 
Congo  Independent  State  (Katanga)  with  a  point  situated  on 
the  Lualaba,  south  of  the  junction  of  that  river  with  the 
Lufila. 

The  approximate  length  of  this  line,  the  survey  of  which 
commenced  as  far  back  as  25th  April,  1903,  will  be  about  500 
kilometres. 

Having  regard  to  those  articles  of  the  Berlin 
General  Act  which  relate  to  the  free  navigation  of 
the  Congo  and  its  affluents,  the  legal  status  of  rail- 
ways within  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo 
becomes  a  matter  of  considerable  importance,  es- 
pecially in  view  of  the  growing  controversy  as  to 
the  proper  construction  of  the  Act. 

Baron  Descamps  has  ably  treated  this  subject  in 
his  New  Africa,  a  volume  of  exceptional  interest  at 
this  time.  After  pointing  out  that  the  "freedom 
of  navigation"  declared  by  the  Berlin  Act  must  not 
be  confoimded  with  freedom  of  railway  traffic,  inas- 
much as  the  latter  admits  of  grants  of  monopoly  and 
the  former  does  not,  this  eminent  writer  on  questions 
of  general  and  special  law  says : 

The  idea  of  considering  railways  as  continuations  of  water- 
courses, or  as  junctions  between  water-courses,  was  quite  a 
new  one,  as  was  pointed  out  at  the  Berlin  Conference.     The 


258         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Conference  realised  the  necessity  of  providing  for  the  logical 
consequences  of  such  an  idea,  and  therefore  it  drew  up  special 
regulations  which  are  worthy  of  careful  examination. 

The  general  legal  standing  of  railways  in  the  Congo,  the 
essential  rights  of  the  authorities  as  to  their  construction, 
their  concession,  their  running  powers,  their  charges,  their 
position  as  public  highways,  their  administrative  and  judicial 
policy  are  the  same  as  those  of  railways  in  other  countries. 

The  Berlin  Act,  as  regards  railways  destined  to  provide 
transport  where  the  Congo  and  the  Niger  become  unnavigable, 
made  special  provision  in  clauses  16  and  23  on  the  one  hand, 
and  29  and  33  on  the  other — the  only  clauses  which  are  con- 
cerned with  railways — for  certain  details  of  these  communi- 
cations. After  declaring  that  these  railways,  as  means  of 
communication,  are  considered  as  auxiliaries  of  the  rivers,  the 
Act  dwells  on  the  legal  consequences  attaching  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  this  new  idea,  this  conventional  innovation  in  inter- 
national relations.     The  consequences  are  as  follows: 

1.  The  obligation  of  opening  the  railways  to  the  traffic  of 
all  nations  (Art.  16,  §  i),  and  the  inviolability  at  all  times  of 
the  lines  thus  opened  to  the  trade  of  all  nations  (Art.  25,  §1). 

2.  The  obligation  to  refrain  from  any  excessive  railway 
rates,  that  is  to  say,  "not  calculated  on  the  cost  of  construc- 
tion, maintenance  and  management,  and  on  the  profits  due  to 
the  promoters."  The  Berlin  Act  states  but  these  general  prin- 
ciples, its  object  being  to  give  the  basis  of  calculation  rather 
than  a  detailed  solution  of  the  problem,  since  it  does  not  draw 
up  a  schedule  of  rates  with  respect  to  the  nature  of  goods  or 
the  scale  of  the  charges. 

3.  The  obligation  to  observe,  in  fixing  a  tariff  within  these 
broad  limits,  "equality  of  treatment  for  the  strangers  and  the 
subjects  of  the  respective  territories." 

Thus,  equality  is  sure  to  be  observed  as  regards  the  tariff, 
both  in  the  case  of  subjects  and  foreigners,  and  especially  so  in 
business  which  may  be  called  the  sphere  of  private  activity, 
i.  e.,  commerce.  Thus  also  the  power  of  the  State  to  allow 
exclusive  access  to  the  railways,  to  impose  extra  or  unfair 
charges,  is  minimised.     The  Berlin  Act  goes  so  far,  but  does 


P4 


!« 


Navigation,  Railways,  Roads  259 

not  pass  these  limits.  Beyond  this,  it  does  not  affect  the 
sovereign  prerogatives  of  the  State  as  regards  its  territory. 

According  to  the  usual  right  of  the  Powers  in  all  that  re- 
gards railways,  the  State  can  order  the  establishment  of  the 
same,  can  have  them  constructed,  run  them  itself,  and  fix 
their  tariff.  It  can  also,  if  deemed  preferable,  authorise  a 
concessionaire  to  collect  the  charges  on  the  contemplated  line, 
on  condition  that  he  shall  undertake  the  construction  and 
maintain  the  established  tariff. 

The  Berlin  Act  respects  these  fundamental  rights.  It  offers 
no  opposition  against  whatever  arrangements  the  State  makes 
with  its  concessionaire  as  regards  a  schedule  of  rates  with 
respect  to  the  nature  of  goods  or  the  scale  of  the  charges.  It 
does  not  intrude  upon  the  internal  organisation  of  the  rates, 
except  so  far  as  it  circumscribes  them  within  the  following 
limitations:  i,  all  are  free  to  use  the  railways  ;  2,  no  distinc- 
tion can  be  based  on  the  nationality  of  individuals ;  3,  and  no 
excessive  rates  are  to  be  imposed. 

Circumstances  may  render  changes  in  the  tariff  advisable, 
and  the  State  may  modify  the  rates  periodically.'  It  may  also 
exercise  the  right  of  ordering  its  concessionaire  to  make  cer- 
tain modifications  and  reductions. 

This  was  the  course  adopted  by  the  Free  State  in  relation 
to  the  Congo  Railway  in  its  initial  estimates.  It  also  reserved 
the  right  of  repurchase.  This  latter  reservation,  however,  it 
abandoned  for  a  time  by  Act  dated  November  12,  1901,  which 
also  stipulated  in  what  manner  its  optional  power  of  reducing 
rates  was  to  be  exercised.  That  power  it  exercised  by  im- 
posing a  comprehensive  system  of  reduction,  and  without  at 
the  time  committing  itself  to  any  declaration  as  to  the  specific 
classes  of  goods  on  which  the  rates  were  to  be  reduced.  It 
does  not  concern  strangers  whether  it  be  exercised  in  one  act 
or  in  two,  and  whether  the  concessionaire  acts  by  special 
agreement  with  the  State  or  under  general  powers.  The  main 
consideration  is  whether  the  procedure  followed  for  the  attain- 
ment of  the  reductions  aimed  at  is  in  accordance  with  the 

'  As  this  volume  is  going  to  press,  the  announcement  is  made  that 
the  rates  have  been  reduced. 


26o         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Berlin  Act.  In  the  present  case,  the  procedure  certainly  was 
in  accordance  with  that  Act. 

From  a  legal  point  of  view,  nothing  can  be  said  against  the 
State's  reducing  railway  rates,  inasmuch  as  it  was  invested 
with  the  right  of  primarily  drawing  up  those  rates. 

By  the  same  Act  of  November  12,  1901,  the  State  enjoys 
certain  special  conditions  of  transport  for  carrying  out  works 
of  public  utility.  That  right  is  quite  legitimate  for  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  does  not  entitle  private  citizens  to  demand  its 
application  for  their  own  purposes.  The  State  could  have 
enjoyed  these  advantages  if  it  had  itself  built  and  worked  the 
line.  The  mere  fact  of  a  concession  by  no  means  robs  the  State 
of  all  its  rights  in  this  respect.  These  advantages  are  justi- 
fied, for  the  State  has  made  real  sacrifices  in  ceding  a  part  of 
its  territory  and  in  abandoning  the  repurchase  clauses.  The 
advantages  accruing  to  the  State  do  not  in  any  way  interfere 
with  the  equal  treatment  of  individuals  stipulated  for  in 
Article  16,  which  says:  "As  regards  the  rate  of  these  tolls, 
foreigners  and  subjects  of  the  respective  territories  shall  be 
treated  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality." 

No  distinction  is  made  on  account  of  nationalities ;  the  only 
difference  made  rests  on  a  service  of  public  utility,  regardless 
of  nationality.  Neither  subjects  nor  foreigners  can  say  that 
their  civil  or  commercial  liberties  are  endangered. 

There  are  certain  authoritative  interpretations  of  the  Ber- 
lin Act  which  confirm  our  view  of  this  question.  The  German 
Government,  for  example,  considers  no  breach  of  equality  the 
exemption  of  all  dues  granted  to  a  German  railway  conces- 
sionaire. Below  are  two  clauses  of  the  Imperial  German 
decree,  dated  December  i,  1891,  and  relating  to  the  railway 
in  German  East  Africa  (Usambara  line). 

"Clause  I. — The  Imperial  Government  shall  grant  to  no 
other  contractor,  either  individual  or  corporation,  the  right 
of  constructing  or  working  a  railway  line  joining  the  said 
localities  or  liable  to  compete  with  the  line  ceded  by  the 
present  decree  or  any  parts  of  same." 

''Clause  g. — The  Imperial  Government  guarantees  to  the 
tjerman  East  African  Railway  Company,  subject  to  compli- 


Navigation,  Railways,  Roads  261 

ance  with  the  prescribed  formalities,  an  exemption  from  all 
taxes  on  materials,  engines,  working  tools,  and  all  other  im- 
plements and  articles  which  may  be  imported  into  German 
East  Africa  for  the  construction,  repair,  renewal,  and  running 
of  the  railway." 

In  drawing  up  special  tariffs  with  its  concessionaire,  it  may 
be  asked  whether  the  State  can  base  these  rates  on  the  actual 
working  expenses — that  is  to  say,  with  neither  profit  nor  loss 
for  the  concessionaire.  From  an  economic  point  of  view,  such 
a  tariff  is  perfectly  justifiable.  Transporting  operations,  per 
se,  cannot  be  separated  from  the  transactions  to  which  they 
are  related.  These  transactions  must  be  considered  in  view 
of  all  the  surrounding  circumstances.  In  negotiating  trans- 
port operations,  which  of  themselves  entail  neither  profit  nor 
loss,  a  contractor  is  quite  justified  in  calculating  on  present 
or  probable  advantages  which  may  result  from  the  whole  of 
the  operation;  as,  for  instance,  the  opening  of  new  markets 
and  the  renunciation  to  the  right  of  immediate  repurchase  of 
the  concern.  To  forbid  him  to  do  this  would  be  to  spoil 
his  chances  and  deprive  him  in  many  cases  of  a  part  of  the 
profit  to  which  he  is  justly  entitled. 

Neither  can  it  be  argued,  in  the  case  of  a  railway  like  that 
of  the  Congo,  that  the  contractor  should  require  rates  superior 
to  his  actual  expenses,  in  order  to  realise  an  immediate  profit. 
Clause  16  states  "that  there  shall  be  collected  only  tolls  cal- 
culated on  the  cost  of  construction,  maintenance,  and  manage- 
ment, and  on  the  profits  due  to  the  promoters."  To  argue  in 
the  sense  indicated  would  be  against  the  purport  of  the  clause 
which  aims  at  forbidding  excessive  rates,  but  which  in  no  way 
interferes  with  a  gradual  realisation  of  average  profits  by  the 
contractors.  To  arbitrarily  forbid  the  contractor  to  make 
such  profits  would  be  to  fly  in  the  face  of  Clause  i6,  inasmuch 
as  it  refers  to  the  profits  due  to  the  contractor.  It  is  equally 
fallacious  to  imagine  that  because  certain  merchandise  is  car- 
ried for  a  time  without  profit,  the  rates  for  certain  other  mer-  / 
chandise  must  needs  be  increased.  Finally,  it  would  still  have  •^- 
to  be  shown  that  the  Berlin  Act  forbids  a  proper  and  reason- 
able equalisation  of  contractors'  charges.     But  the  Berlin  Act 


262  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

does  not  meddle  with  such  arrangements;  it  does  not  estab- 
Hsh  a  detailed  and  proportional  schedule  of  rates.  It  only- 
says  that  such  charges  must  not  be  excessive — that  is  to  say, 
they  must  not  exceed  the  comprehensive  amount  of  the  neces- 
sary^ expenses  and  due  profits.  The  Act,  moreover,  fixes  no 
maximum  for  such  profits,  neither  does  it  fix  any  maximum 
rates  on  produce.  Its  intentions  in  this  respect  are  shown  by 
its  refusal  to  define,  even  by  means  of  a  maximum  scale,  the 
extent  of  compensatory  rates. 

Time  was  when  the  native  Congolese,  lazily  living 
out  his  torpid  life  in  a  land  where  Nature  in  her 
Africa  Un-  Itixuriance  yielded  him  subsistence  without 
known  to  the  ennobling  concomitant  of  his  labour, 
ricans.  avoided  the  great  forests,  the  jungles,  and 
the  marshes  of  Equatorial  Africa.  He  moved  about 
to  regions  of  easy  access  where  the  land  afforded 
his  indolence  the  greatest  pleasure  for  the  least  re- 
sponsibility. Explorers  and  the  early  builders  of 
the  Congo  Free  State  often  experienced  great  diffi- 
culty in  preventing  the  desertion  of  their  native 
carriers  over  a  trackless  course,  such,  for  instance,- 
as  Stanley,  Wissmann,  De  Brazza,  cut  out  on  their 
several  expeditions.  In  short,  the  African  Negro 
regarded  his  feet  with  such  solicitude  that  he  waited 
for  the  white  man  to  show  him  the  thickets  and  the 
fastnesses  which  contained  those  natural  resources — 
rubber,  oil,  gum,  ivory,  nuts — which  certain  library 
philosophers  and  untravelled  colonisers  assert  were 
the  conscious  property  of  the  savage  who  neither 
knew  of,  nor  cared  for,  their  existence.  Industry 
was  not  worth  while  to  him  who  could  supply  his 
wants  in  idleness. 

The  State,  on  the  other  hand,  has  not  only  taught 


Navigation,  Railways,  Roads  263 

the  native  Congolese  the  enlightening  influence  of 
honest  labour,  it  has  set  him  an  example  of  colonial 
industry  the  like  of  which  can  not  be  found  in  the 
possessions  of  any  other  European  Power.  It  built 
its  railways  where  the  engineering  skill  of  its  more 
powerful  neighbours  predicted  failure;  it  sought 
the  hidden  treasure  of  a  vast  domain  with  routes 
and  transport  services  which,  in  part,  account  for 
prosperity  which  others  observe  with  manifest  envy. 
Not  content  with  these,  it  has  lately  penetrated  the 
forests  with  wide  avenues,  hundreds  of  miles  long, 
upon  which  to  operate  an  automobile  service.  On 
this  subject  Vice-Govemor-General  Fuchs  says: 

The  Government  has  also  given  attention  to  the  construc- 
tion of  routes  for  motor  cars;  two  chief  routes  of  this  kind 
are  being  constructed. 

The  first  in  the  Uelle  between  Redjaf  and  Ibembo.  It  will 
be  about  1250  kilometres  in  length,  of  which,  according  to  the 
latest  information  furnished,  400  kilometres  are  now  open  to 
use.  Experiments  are  being  made  there  by  means  of  three 
steam  waggons. 

The  second  starts  from  Songololo,  a  station  on  the  railway 
from  Matadi  to  the  Pool,  and  proceeds  to  Popokabaka  on  the 
river  Kwango. 

Routes  destined  for  transport  by  waggons  are,  besides,  in 
course  of  construction,  and  in  some  parts  of  the  territory  are 
sufficiently  advanced  to  permit  of  transport  by  oxen,  par- 
ticularly in  the  Uelle,  Katanga,  and  Manyema.  The  Mahagi- 
Irumu  route  is  working  for  a  length  of  165  kilometres;  eleven 
large  villages  are  now  established  along  this  route,  at  distances 
of  from  13  to  16  kilometres  from  each  other. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

SCIENCE,  AGRICULTURE,  CIVILISING  MEASURES 

WITHIN  the  lifetime  of  men  who  may  still  be 
accounted  young,  the  words  that  stand  at 
the  head  of  this  chapter  had  no  appli- 
cation to  any  part  of  Central  Africa.  Science,  in 
A  Marvel-  ^^^  ^^^  forms,  was  Utterly  unknown  there; 
lous  Trans-  agriculture  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  ex- 
formation,  .g^g^^  though  a  few  of  the  tribes  raised 
scanty  crops  of  a  nature  that  needed  little  or  no 
attention;  while  of  civilising  measures  there  were 
absolutely  none.  These  concomitants  of  long-estab- 
lished civilisation  followed  naturally  the  advent  of 
the  Belgians;  and  they  have  ever  since,  year  by 
year,  taken  root,  and  spread  until  there  are  no  two 
countries  in  the  world  more  dissimilar  than  the 
Central  Africa  of  thirty  years  ago  and  the  Central 
Africa  of  to-day. 

Realising  to  the  full  that  complete  success  in  any 
undertaking  is  only  possible  where  all  the  conditions 
The  Gospel  affecting  it  are  thoroughly  understood, 
ofThor-  the  Congo  State,  early  in  its  career,  es- 
oughness.  -^ablished  nineteen  scientific  stations,  at 
various  points  throughout  its  territories,  for  the  col- 
lection of  data  relating  to  anthropology,  botany, 
ethnography,  geology,  philology,  pisciculture,  miner- 

264 


Science,  Agriculture,  Civilising  Measures     265 

alogy,  zoology,  etc.,  and  for  trigonometrical  and 
astronomical  surveys.  Each  of  these  stations  is  in 
charge  of  an  expert,  with  properly  qualified  assist- 
ants. They  have  transmitted  to  Europe  a  whole 
literature  of  monographs,  of  great  interest  and  value, 
upon  all  sorts  of  subjects,  and  their  field  of  work  is 
still  far  from  being  exhausted.  The  study  of  the 
Congo  climate  by  these  savants  has  proved  especially 
valuable,  their  recommendations  as  to  regimen, 
dress,  habitation,  etc.,  for  travellers  and  settlers, 
having  reduced  the  death  rate  of  the  whites  to  six 
per  cent.,  thus  dispelling  for  ever  the  old  notion 
of  the  deadliness  of  Central  Africa,  and  showing  it 
to  be  at  least  as  healthful  as  India,  and  healthier 
than  either  German  East  Africa,  the  Cameroons, 
the  Niger  Territory,  or  Cochin  China.  A  small,  but 
continual  and  increasing,  influx  of  Europeans  and 
Americans  demonstrates  the  gradual  abandonment 
of  fear  of  the  Congo  climate,  and  faith  in  the  hy- 
gienic system  inaugurated  by  the  Belgians, — a  sys- 
tem which  maintains  sixteen  State  doctors  to  watch 
over  and  report  upon  the  health  of  the  various 
stations,  and  a  permanent  Hygienic  Commission, 
which  sits  at  Boma. 

At  the  royal  palace  of  Tervueren,  near  Brussels, 
now  used  as  a  public  museum,  are  exhibited  nearly 
eight  thousand  objects  illustrating  industry 

1  ,  ,1  •      •■•  1  r  Museum  at 

and  art  among  the  primitive  peoples  ot  xervueren. 
Central  Africa,  such  as  costumes,  dwellings, 
musical   instruments,   and   implements   of  hunting, 
fishing,  agriculture,  river  navigation,  and  war.     The 
museum  also  contains  several  thousand  geological, 


266  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

mineralogical,  and  zoological  specimens,  and  a  very 
comprehensive  herbarium,  all  collected  within  the 
borders  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  The  latter  is  of 
particular  interest,  containing  specimens  of  more 
than  four  hundred  new  species. 

From  the  first  it  has  been  the  unswerving  policy 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  to  promote,  by  every  means 
at  its  disposal,  the  advancement  of  science  as  it 
affects,  and  as  it  is  affected  by,  conditions  prevailing 
within  its  territories.  Until  the  Belgians  came 
among  them,  smallpox  from  time  to  time  decimated 
the  natives,  and  was  as  great  an  evil  as  the  slave 
trade  or  their  own  internecine  wars.  They  had  no 
conception  of  its  prevention  or  cure,  and  submitted 
to  its  ravages  with  unintelligent  dumb  passivity  as 
a  providential  visitation  impossible  to  resist.  The 
white  man  with  his  vaccine  was  a  revelation  to 
them;  and  though  they  at  first  refused  to  believe 
in  its  efficacy,  and  would  not  accept  vaccination, 
they  soon  perceived  the  error  of  their  disbelief;  and 
now  they  voluntarily  come  to  the  Belgian  medical 
officers  asking  to  be  vaccinated.  Both  Boma  and 
New  Antwerp  have  vaccine  producing  institutions, 
and  vaccine  is  also  distributed  from  Coquilhatville 
and  Stanleyville.  The  results  are  most  gratifying; 
for  although,  unfortunately,  smallpox  is  by  no  means 
stamped  out  of  the  Congo  State  it  is  far  less  pre- 
valent and  less  virulent  than  formerly,  so  that  it 
is  not  unreasonable  to  look  for  its  practical  extinc- 
tion in  the  near  future. 

To  the  present.  Science  has  proved  powerless  to 
cope  with  that  strange  malady,  the  sleeping -sick- 


Science,  Agriculture,  Civilising  Measures    267 

ness.  The  ablest  physicians,  not  only  of  Belgium, 
but  of  England,  France,  and  Germany,  have  studied 
the  disease  exhaustively.  Though  much  ^^^  sieep- 
valuable  data  relating  to  its  cause  and  ing  sick- 
effect  have  been  collected,  the  discovery 
of  its  antidote  seems  as  far  off  to-day  as  ever.  The 
prevalence  of  this  fatal  sickness  among  its  people 
makes  it  a  subject  of  vital  concern  to  the  Congo 
Government,  which  is  unceasingly  vigilant  in  seek- 
ing to  discover  the  means  for  its  extinction  or  al- 
leviation. In  its  pursuit  of  this  object,  all  possible 
facilities  have  been  afforded  to  foreign  doctors  visit- 
ing the  Congo  State.  By  request  of  the  English 
medical  faculty,  three  Congolese  patients,  suffering 
from  sleeping  sickness,  were  recently  sent  to  the 
School  of  Tropical  Medicine  at  Liverpool.  On 
another  occasion  two  others  were  sent  to  the  Char- 
ing Cross  Hospital  in  London.  Animals  have  been 
infected  with  the  germs  of  the  disease,  and  its  every 
symptom,  from  inception  to  climax,  noted  with  min- 
ute accuracy.  The  disease,  which  is  invariably  fatal, 
appears  to  be  on  the  increase,  and  there  have  been 
many  victims  of  it  on  the  Gold  Coast  as  well  as  in  the 
Congo  State.  For  some  obscure  reason  this  dreadful 
malady  has  been  strictly  confined  to  individuals  of 
the  black  race.  Notwithstanding  its  want  of  success 
in  combating  the  evil,  the  Congo  Government  may 
congratulate  itself  that  it  has  neglected  no  precau- 
tion, and  spared  no  expense,  in  its  effort  to  mitigate 
what  may  conceivably  develop  into  a  veritable  plague. ' 

'  In  the  opinion  of  scientists,  sleeping  sickness  is  due  to  a  trypano- 
mous  microbe,  the  propagating  agent  of  which  is  the  tsetse  fly. 


268  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

In  numerous  ways  has  the  Congo  Government 
appHed  modem  science  to  the  upHfting  and  general 
betterment  of  the  people  over  whom  it  rules,  without 
distinction  of  colour  or  creed.  Twenty-seven  medi- 
cal men,  holders  of  European  dij^lomas,  twenty 
Health  Committees  scattered  throughout  the  coun- 
try, a  Bacteriological  Institute,  and  a  Hospital  for 
Natives  at  Boma  not  only  labour  for  the  cure  of 
disease,  but  disseminate  as  widely  as  possible  among 
the  natives  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  health.  On 
the  whole,  the  work  has  been  marvellously  produc- 
tive of  good  results,  and  the  native  is  now  incom- 
parably more  healthful,  cleaner,  better  fed,  and 
better  housed  than  at  any  previous  period  of  his 
history. 

Thirty  years  ago  what  is  now  the  Congo  Free 
State  was  a  wild  tangle  of  luxuriant  tropical  growth 
through  which  hordes  of  black  savages 
ACTkuiture  ^oamed,  fought,  and  practised  their  un- 
speakable barbarities,  living  almost  entirely 
upon  the  spontaneous  products  of  Nature.  The 
white  magician  has  waved  his  wand  and  the  scene 
is  transformed.  In,  and  far  around,  each  of  the 
numerous  governmental  stations  or  posts,  life  and 
property  are  as  secure  now  as  in  any  part  of  Europe 
or  America.  The  spade  and  the  hoe  have  displaced 
the  throwing-spear  and  poisoned  arrow  in  the  hands 
of  the  native.  Where  the  shy  antelope  or  spring -bok 
browsed,  remote  from  human  intrusion,  the  soil  is 
now  turned  up  by  the  plough,  and  devoted  to  the 
growing  of  coffee,  cocoa,  tea  (of  the  Assam  variety) 
and  various  condiments,  cinnamon,  pepper,  ginger, 


Science,  Agriculture,  Civilising  Measures    269 

nutmegs,  cloves,  vanilla,  etc.  The  establishments 
for  the  breeding  of  cattle,  horses,  and  donkeys,  par- 
ticularly in  the  Enclave  of  Lado,  in  Ruzizi-Kivu, 
Equateur,  Bangala,  and  Lualaba-Kassai,  are  numer- 
ous and  increasing.  Latest  accounts  to  hand  state 
that  they  exceed  seventy.  Many  of  the  natives 
display  considerable  aptitude  in  learning  how  to 
tend  herds  of  cattle.  Great  expense  has 
been  incurred  by  the  State  and  by  various  °^^ca«ie 
companies  in  the  purchase  and  importation 
of  pedigree  horses  and  cattle.  The  animals  have 
been  selected  from  the  best  European  stocks  by  ex- 
perts, and  assigned  to  various  breeding  establish- 
ments throughout  the  country.  The  enterprise  has 
proved  extremely  successful,  the  number  of  cattle 
of  European  origin  now  in  the  State  being  no  fewer 
than  4500,  with  sixty  horses,  and  nearly  as  many 
donkeys. 

In  following  agricultural  employments  the  natives 
receive  liberal  encouragement  from  the  Government. 
The  State  offers  rewards  for  the  cultivation  of  coffee 
and  cocoa.  At  all  suitable  stations  is  a  coffee  and 
cocoa  nursery,  established  by  the  State;  that  is  to 
say,  the  State  has  supplied  the  necessary  seeds,  and 
contracts  to  allow  an  indemnity  for  each  shrub  on 
its  attaining  two  feet  in  height,  and  to  pay  the  native 
half  the  value  of  its  produce  less  the  cost  of  transport 
to  Europe. 

Coffee  has  been  found   to  flourish  most  in  the 
districts   of    Equateur  and   Aruwimi,  and 
in  the  zone  of  Stanley  Falls.     Liberica,  Ar- 
abian, and  Guadaloupe  are  the  varieties  which  have 


270         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

been  selected  as  suited  to  the  Congo  soil  and  climate. 
The  number  of  coffee  plants  has  increased  from 
61,517  in  1894,  to  1,996,200  in  1902.  Cocoa  plants 
numbered  no  fewer  than  298,003  in  1902,  an  in- 
crease of  284,136  in  ten  years! 

In  1899  the  State  erected  a  factory  for  the  prepa- 
ration of  coffee  at  Kinshassa,  and  adopted  several 
new  methods,  improvements  upon  the  practice  in 
vogue  in  countries  where  coffee  has  been  culti- 
vated for  generations.  After  being  dried  at  the 
plantations,  the  coffee  is  placed  in  sacks  and  sent 
in  State  steamers  to  Stanley  Pool,  and  thence  to 
the  Kinshassa  factory.  So  good  is  the  quality  of 
Congo  coffee  that  in  1894  it  realised  no  less  than 
100  francs  per  100  kilogrammes  in  the  open  market 
at  Antwerp. 

Caoutchouc  (rubber),  for  countless  ages  wholly  a 
spontaneous  product  of  the  forests,  every  year  be- 
comes more  and  more  an  object  of  cultivation.  By 
a  decree  dated  January  5,  1899,  it  is  provided  that 
in  all  the  forests  of  the  domain  caoutchouc  trees 
shall  be  planted  in  the  proportion  of  150  feet  to  the 
ton  of  caoutchouc  collected  during  the  same  period. 
By  a  subsequent  decree,  dated  six  months  later,  the 
number  of  caoutchouc  trees  to  be  planted  for  each 
ton  of  caoutchouc  collected  was  raised  from  150 
feet  to  500  feet.  The  enforcement  of  these  decrees 
is  attended  to  by  a  staff  of  foresters,  consisting  of 
eight  controllers  and  twelve  sub-controllers,  work- 
ing under  a  chief  inspector. 

Until  prohibited  by  State  decree,  the  method  of 
collecting  caoutchouc  practised  by  the  natives  was 


it! 


Science,  Agriculture,  Civilising  Measures    271 

to  make  an  incision  in  the  plant  (liana),  and  al- 
low the  fluid  to  run  into  a  jar.  Sometimes  they 
allowed  it  to  run  into  their  hands,  and 
afterwards  smeared  it  over  their  bodies,  and  Rubbe? 
in  that  manner  it  was  conveyed  to  market, 
where  it  was  rubbed  off  with  sand.  It  was  an  ex- 
ceedingly wasteful  method,  or  rather  want  of  method, 
for  the  plant  thus  drawn  from  was  necessarily  killed. 
Only  the  prodigious  quantity  of  plants  existing  on 
the  Upper  Congo  and  its  tributaries  has  saved  it 
from  extinction.  Now  caoutchouc  is  harvested  by 
extracting  the  fluid  from  the  stem  of  the  plant  in  a 
way  that  does  it  no  injury,  a  scientific  yet  simple 
operation  easily  performed  by  women  and  children. 
The  industry  has  assumed  enormous  proportions. 
The  number  of  caoutchouc  plants  put  into  the 
ground  by  companies  and  by  the  State  are  valued 
at  five  million  francs.  The  rubber  annually  pro- 
duced in  the  world  amounts  at  present  to  something 
over  30,000  tons,  of  which  the  Congo  Free  State 
exports  5000  tons. 

In  the  African  forests  the  caoutchouc  or  rubber- 
bearing  plant  grows  to  a  great  height,  often  exceed- 
ing 100  feet.  It  is  commonly  about  six 
inches  in  diameter  at  its  base,  and  shoots  ^  pianT 
upward  to  the  light  through  a  dense  mass 
of  tropical  growth  until,  failing  to  find  further  sup- 
port, it  falls  upon  the  branches  of  the  tallest  trees, 
and  spreads  itself  over  them.  There  are  numerous 
other  plants  of  the  same  genus  which  closely  resemble 
it,  but  their  sap  lacks  the  qualities  of  true  rubber. 
For  several  years  past  the  State  has  experimented 


2  72  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

with  these  plants,  and  has  sent  specimens  of  them 
to  the  authorities  at  the  Botanical  Gardens  at  Brus- 
sels, Kew,  Berlin,  and  Paris,  for  investigation.  The 
ever-increasing  demand  for  rubber  for  use  in  the  in- 
dustries stimulates  the  inquiry  as  to  whether  or  not 
it  is  possible  to  so  treat  what  is  now  regarded  as 
"false  rubber"  that  it  shall  serve  all  the  purposes  of 
"true  rubber." 

Amongst  the  true  rubber  lianas  in  which  the 
Congo  Basin  abounds  are  the  following:  Ficus 
altissima,  ficus  Eetveldeana,  ficus  elastica,  ficus  nek- 
buda,  ficus  religiosa,  manihot  glaziovii  (French  name, 
ceara) ,  clitandra  Arnoldiana  (native  name,  mondongo), 
juntumia  elastica  (French  name,  Ireh),  landolphia 
gentillii,  and  the  landolphia  owariensis  (native  name, 
matofe  mengo). 

Constant  experiments  are  being  made,  privately 
and  by  the  State,  in  the  production  of  copal,  sugar, 
tobacco,  and  cotton,  with  results  that  justify  the 
confident  expectation  that  at  no  distant  date  they 
will  be  profitably  exported.  The  cultivation  of  the 
vine,  and  of  numerous  fruits  and  grasses,  receives 
also  much  attention,  and  is  full  of  promise. 

African  ivory  is  ever3^where  esteemed  for  its 
superiority  in  colour  and  hardness  to  the  Indian 
variety.  The  large  herds  of  elephants  in- 
and'ivo^'.  habiting  the  forests  of  the  Congo  State 
provide,  at  present,  an  enormous  supply; 
but  the  Government  wisely  takes  into  account  the 
possibility  of  its  exhaustion,  and  has  prohibited  the 
shooting  of  elephants.  Wise  laws  also  regulate 
the  cutting  and  export  of  lumber;   and  the  folly  of 


Making  Baskets  for  Transportation  of  Rubber  (Kassai). 


Science,  Agriculture,  Civilising  Measures     273 

denuding  vast  regions  of  trees,  such  as  we  have  been 
guilty  of  in  America,  will  not  be  repeated  on  the 
Congo. 

In  every  way  the  State  has  exerted  its  utmost 
influence  to  effect  the  moral  improvement  of  the 
native  races,  and  its  efforts  have  met  with 
much  success.  Their  liberty  and  property  influence? 
are  very  carefully  guarded.  Polygamy  is 
not  only  discountenanced,  it  is  penalised,  no  polyga- 
mist  being  eligible  for  employment,  whether  mili- 
tary or  civil,  by  the  State.  Christian  marriages 
between  natives,  which  ten  years  ago  numbered 
eighty-four,  now  take  place  by  thousands  every 
year. 

Alcohol  is  prohibited  over  2,337,500  square  kilo- 
metres of  Congo  territory,  the  zone  w^ithin  which 
its  sale  is  tolerated  extending  to  only  12,500  square 
kilometres,  w^here  its  abuse  is  guarded  against  by 
carefully  devised  restrictions,  rigidly  enforced.  The 
sale  of  absinthe  is  absolutely  forbidden  in  every  part 
of  the  Congo  Free  State. 

It  thus  appears  that,  as  the  guardian  of  the  wel- 
fare of  its  people,  the  Congo  Free  State  has  nothing 
to  learn,  either  in  theory  or  practice,  from  the  most 
enlightened  governments  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

TRADE,  REVENUE,  AND  TAXES 

AMONG  the  earlier  trading  companies  on  the 
West  Coast  of  Africa  was  the  house  of  Regis 
et  Cie.,  estabhshed  at  Banana  in  1858,  whose 
successors,  Daumas,  Beraud  et  Cie.,  were  carrying  on 
a  considerable  business  when  Stanley  explored  in- 
land from  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  in  1878.  The  old 
Dutch  house,  the  Afrikaansche  Handels-Vennoot- 
schap,  of  Rotterdam,  had  a  branch  at  Boma  in  i860, 
and  the  Portuguese  firm  of  Valle  &  Azvedo,  and  the 
agents  of  Hatton  &  Cookson,  of  Liverpool,  opened 
trading  depots  near  by  a  few  years  later.  These 
firms  had,  however,  very  little  direct  trade  with  the 
interior  of  the  Congo  Basin,  commerce  in  their  early 
time  being  confined  to  the  coast.  Trade  with  the 
interior  is  almost  entirely  due  to  the  Belgians. 

Before  the  Free  State  was  founded  the  trade  of 
Central  Africa  was  chiefly  in  slaves.  As  a  Belgian 
writer  quaintly  observes,  the  slave  was  at  once  the 
means  of  labour,  the  main  capital,  the  vehicle  of 
transport,  the  common  currency,  and  the  usual 
tribute  given  to  satisfy  the  covetousness  of  native 
chiefs.  The  slave  was  the  standard  of  wealth  and 
the  element  of  power.  In  order  to  estimate  the 
influence  of  the  slave  trade  as  an  economical  factor 

274 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes  275 

in  barbarous  communities,  and  compare  it  with  the 
trade  regime  of  civiHsation,  it  would  be  necessary 
to  imagine  deaHngs  in  some  object  representing  all 
these  uses  in  our  markets." 

To  destroy  the  slave  trade  creates  the  problem  of 
substituting  a  trade  that  is  legitimate,  that  is  founded 
upon  the  natural  resources  of  the  country.  It 
simultaneously  creates  the  problem  of  labour.  The 
soil  depends  upon  the  man  in  the  ratio  in  which  man 
depends  upon  the  soil.  The  Belgians  heard  from 
Stanley  what  vast  wealth  the  Congo  contained ;  but 
that  wealth  lay  behind  difficulties  so  great  that  no 
one  in  Europe  ventured  to  pursue  it  until  the  in- 
domitable personality  of  one  man  inspired  men  with 
the  courage  to  undertake  a  seemingly  hopeless  task. 
Without  a  railway  from  Matadi  to  Stanley  Pool 
commerce  could  not  develop  in  the  Congo  Basin. 
This  was  Stanley's  opinion.  His  judgment  that  the 
Congo  had  little  value  without  such  a  railway  in 
the  region  of  the  Cataracts  has  been  justified.  The 
Belgians  built  the  railway  at  a  cost  nearly  treble 
that  of  the  original  estimate.  In  fact,  while  others 
have  been  groaning  and  droning  and  musing  upon 
the  ethical  theories  of  ideal  colonisation  and  civili- 
sation, in  pamphlets  and  innocuous  books,  the  Bel- 
gians have  followed  their  own  gospel  of  work  and 
been  at  their  task  throughout  the  waking  hours  of 
each  day.  Spontaneous  initiative,  timely  energy,  un- 
remitting labour,  these  appear  to  be  the  character- 
istics of  Belgian  dominance  in  Congoland.  Having 
regard  to  the  habit  Europeans  have  of  considering 

^  Descamps. 


276  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Americans  the  great  exemplars  of  an  age  of  ma- 
teriahsm  and  hustle,  there  is  almost  an  element  of 
humour  in  the  fact  that  one  of  the  first  Congolese 
companies  formed  under  the  aegis  of  the  Free  State 
was  founded  by  an  American,  General  Henry  S. 
Sanford,  sometime  United  States  Minister  at 
Brussels.  This  was  the  Sanford  Exploring  Ex- 
pedition, constituted  by  General  Sanford  and  M. 
Georges  Brugmann  in  1887.  Its  business  was  that 
of  dealing  directly  with  the  natives  for  rubber  and 
ivory,  and  it  and  the  Mateba  Syndicate  and  the 
Compagnie  du  Congo  pour  le  Commerce  et  1' Indus- 
trie are  generally  regarded  as  the  pioneers  of  organ- 
ised trade  in  the  interior  of  Central  Africa.  It 
would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  accident  of  a  king's 
friendship  with  an  American  minister,  whose  wise 
counsel  he  often  consulted,  might  justify  at  least 
sentimental  interest  in  the  welfare  of  a  region  where 
the  restless  spirit  of  strenuous  American  life  had 
manifested  its  tendencies  nearly  twenty  years  ago. 
Since  the  day  when  General  Sanford  set  the  ex- 
ample, forty-eight  Belgian  and  fourteen  foreign  com- 
panies, with  an  original  capital  of  136,000,000  francs, 
have  established  a  commerce  in  Congoland  which  is 
attracting  the  envy  of  some  and  the  admiration  of 
many  throughout  the  world. 

Before  indicating  the  practical  details  of  the  trade 
and  revenue  of  the  State,  a  brief  glance  at  the  ten 
years  before  the  Brussels  Conference  enabled  it  to 
create  its  support  by  levying  import  duties  will  recall 
the  fact  that  from  1878  to  1890  King  Leopold  per- 
sonally expended  upwards  of  3,000,000  francs  a  year 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes  277 

for  the  founding  and  maintenance  of  the  State, 
irrespective  of  the  meagre  support  derived  from 
other  sources.  Indeed,  no  one  felt  disposed  to  sup- 
port an  African  enterprise  which  promised  to  yield 
only  ' '  enlightened  niggers. ' '  As  Stanley  sarcastically 
said  in  his  lectures  in  England,  too  many  of  his 
audience  measured  "civilisation"  by  the  dividends 
it  produced.  The  inability  of  the  Free  State  to 
support  itself  from  enthusiastic  humanitarians  out- 
side of  Belgium  was  significantly  indicated  in  1886, 
when  the  revenue  of  the  State  was  less  than  75,000 
francs!  The  exports,  chiefly  ivory,  were  only 
1,750,000  francs,  and  the  Congo  Association,  when 
it  was  merged  in  the  State,  possessed  only  thirteen 
stations.  Out  of  two  hundred  and  fifty -four  for- 
eigners on  the  Congo  in  188 5- 1886,  only  forty-six 
were  Belgians.  In  fact,  nothing  looked  gloomier 
than  the  prospect  of  the  new  State  in  the  African 
jungle;  and  yet  one  man,  with  a  superhuman  sense 
of  the  future,  continued  to  pour  gold  and  his  labours 
upon  that  dark  and  distant  land  with  its  thirty 
million  unenlightened  souls.  Now,  when  from  a 
wilderness  and  savagery  have  been  evolved  civili- 
sation, a  thriving  industry,  a  prolific  field  and 
growing  market,  religion,  order,  and  prosperity,  all 
that  the  early  pioneer  did  is  utterly  lost  and  for- 
gotten in  the  noisy  controversy  over  a  rich  spoil. 

It  was  by  the  Brussels  Act  of  1890  that  the  State 
acquired  the  right  to  levy  taxes  and  impose  customs 
dues.  What  Leopold  II.  had  expended  on  be- 
half of  the  State  in  its  long  formative  period  was  be- 
yond recovery.     It  will  be  recalled  that  the  Belgian 


278  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Parliament  had  sanctioned  a  loan  to  the  State  of  25,- 
000,000  francs,  5,000,000  francs  to  be  paid  soon  after 
the  Brussels  Conference,  the  remainder  at  the  rate  of 
2,000,000  francs  a  year.  To  this  sum  the  King,  hav- 
ing abandoned  all  claim  to  the  huge  sum  he  had  pre- 
viously advanced  to  the  State,  now  added  an  annual 
subsidy  of  1,000,000  francs.  The  State,  therefore, 
began  the  development  of  its  resources  with  an  as- 
sured income  of  3,000,000  francs  a  year — not  a  large 
sum  when  compared  with  the  responsibility  of  fight- 
ing cannibal  slave-raiders  with  one  hand  while  tilling 
the  soil,  constructing  railways,  creating  posts  and 
missions,  and  organising  the  State's  machinery  with 
the  other.  Beside  the  task  in  Congoland,  the  early 
American  colonist  enjoyed  a  holiday  in  a  land  of 
greater  security  and  healthfulness. 

The  revenues  first  provided  were  on  the  export  of 
rubber  and  ivory.  These  were  fixed,  after  agree- 
ment with  the  neighbouring  States  of  France  and 
Portugal,  at  ten  per  cent.  The  duty  on  vegetable 
products  was  fixed  at  five  per  cent.  Import  duties 
were  as  follows:  On  arms,  ammunition,  and  salt, 
ten  per  cent. ;  merchandise  of  any  kind,  six  per  cent. ; 
on  spirits,  fifteen  francs  per  hectolitre  '  at  50°  of  the 
centesimal  alcoholmetre ;  boats,  machinery,  and 
articles  for  industrial  and  agricultural  use  were  ex- 
empt till  May,  1898,  and  thereafter  paid  only  three 
per  cent. 

The  tax  on  caoutchouc  (rubber)  was  first  fixed  at 

■  twenty -five  centimes  a  kilogramme  (about  five  cents 

on  two  pounds)  equivalent  to  four  per  cent,  on  its 

^  About  twenty-two  gallons. 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes  279 

value  in  Europe.  When,  however,  the  Cataracts 
Railway  was  finished,  and  human  porterage  along 
the  route  from  Stanley  Pool  to  Matadi  abolished, 
the  tax  on  rubber  was  increased  to  eight  per  cent, 
of  its  European  value.  Another  decree  of  the  same 
date  (February,  1898)  provided  for  the  payment  of 
a  licence  of  5000  francs  by  all  persons  establishing 
a  rubber  factory  or  depot  in  the  domains.  Other 
sources  of  revenue  are  coffee,  tea,  cocoa,  gum-co- 
pal, palm  oil,  palm  nuts,  rice,  tobacco,  maize,  sugar- 
cane, vegetables,  fruit,  cinnamon,  pepper,  ginger, 
vanilla,  nutmegs,  cloves,  and  spices. 

Great  credit  is  due  the  local  administrators  of  the 
Free  State  for  the  progress  they  have  made  in  a  long 
list  of  cultivated  products,  and  the  growth  of  the 
country's  export  trade  resulting  from  Belgian  and 
native  co-operation  and  industry.  For  instance,  in 
1887  the  total  exports  amounted  to  only  1,980,441 
francs';    in    1891,   5,353,519    francs,  and  in  1903, 

54,597.835-21. 

The  following  tables  indicate  at  a  glance  the  pro- 
ducts imported  and  exported,  their  comparison  with 
previous  years,  and  their  value : 

*  Reported  in  the  Bulletin  Officiel,  1898. 


28o         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

STATISTICS  OF  PRODUCTS  EXPORTED  FROM  THE  CONGO 
FREE  STATE  DURING  1903 


Special  Commerce 

General  Commerce 

Exports 

Quantity 

Value 

Quantit}' 

Value 

Arachides 

Coffee 

Rubber 

White  Copal 

Palm  Oil 

Ivory 

Palm  Nuts 

Cocoa 

Beans 

Maize 

Kilog."- 
328,463 
136,148 

5.917,983 
341.883 

1,647,434 

184,954 

4,957,635 

89,365 

740 

4,750 

5 

33,654 

Frs.        Cs. 

65,692.60 

129,340.60 

47.343,864.00 

649.577-70 

971,986.06 

3.791,557.00 

1,487,290.50 

125,1 1 1.00 

222.00 

546.25 

15,000.00 

16,827.00 

Kilog. 
461,652 
172,674 
6,594,804 

342,317 
1,848,092 

353.679 
5,909,900 

89,365 

740 

4,750 

5 

33.654 

35,810 

235 

5  m.  3 

Frs.       Cs. 

92,330.40 

164,040.30 

52,758,432.00 

650,402.30 

1,090,374.28 

7,250,419.50 

1,772,970.00 

125,111.00 

222.00 

546.25 

15,000.00 

16,827.00 

17,905.00 

70.50 

750.00 

Rough  Gold 

Rice 

Sesame 

Tobacco 

Wood 

235 
5  m-3 

70.50 
750.00 

Totals 

54,597-835-21 

63,955.400.53 

^  1  kilogramme  equals  2.20  lbs. 


TOTAL  VALUE  OF 


Place  of  Export 

Special 
Commerce 

General 
Commerce 

Free  State  (Upper  Congo 

"         "       (Lower  Congo") 

Frs.       Cs. 

51,790,451.05 

2,807,384.16 

Frs.         Cs. 
]    54,597,835-21 

French  Possessions  (Upper  Congo) .  . 
Portviguese    Possessions    (Left    Bank 

of  the  Congo) 

German  Possessions  (West  Coast  of 

Africa) 

Portuguese  Possessions  (Basin  of  the 

Shiloango) 

Portuguese  Possessions  (Sea  Coast) . . 

6,738,689.35 

1,293,043-47 
895,611.50 

271,840.18 
158,380.82 

Totals 

54,597.835-21 

63.955,400.53 

Collecting  Rubber  in  Forest  of  Lusambo  (Lualaba-Kassai). 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes 


281 


COMPARISON  OF  EXPORTS  FOR  1903  WITH  THOSE  OF  PRE- 
VIOUS YEARS 


Years 


Values 


Special 
Commerce 


General 
Comjnerce 


Second  half-year,  1886 
Year  1887 


1890. 


1893. 
1894. 

1895. 
1896. 
1897. 
1898. 
1899. 
1900. 
1901 . 
1902. 
1903. 


Frs. 

886, 
1,980, 
2,609, 

4,297^ 
8,242, 

5.353. 

5.487. 

6,106, 

8,761, 
10,943. 
12.389. 
15.146, 
22,163, 
36,061, 

47.377, 
50,488, 
50,069, 
54,597. 


432 
441 

300 

543 
199 

519 
632 

134 
622 
019 

599 
976 
481 

959 
401 

394 
514 
835 


Cs. 

03 
45 
35 
85 
43 
37 
89 
68 
15 
07 
85 
32 
86 

25 
33 
31 
97 


Frs. 
3.456, 
7,667, 
7.392, 
8.572, 
14,109, 

10,535, 
7.529, 
7.514, 
II. 031, 
12,135, 
15.091, 
17.457, 
25.396, 
39.138, 

51.775. 
54,007, 
56,962, 
63,955. 


Cs. 
050.41 
969.41 
348.17 
51919 
781.27 
619.25 
979.68 

791-39 
704.48 
656.16 
137.62 
090.85 
706.40 
283.67 
978.09 
581.07 

349-44 
400.53 


'Statistics  of  exports  were  not  taken  until  after  July  i,  1886. 


EXPORTS  FOR  1903 


Destination 


Special 
Commerce 


General 
Commerce 


Belgium 

Portuguese  Possessions  (Sea  Coast) 

Low  Countries 

England 

Portuguese  Possessions  (Left  Bank  of 

the  Congo) 

Portugal 

British     Possessions     (East     Coast     of 

Africa) 

Gennany 

French  Possessions  (Upper  Congo) .... 

France 

German    Possessions    (East    Coast    of 

Africa) 

German    Possessions    (West    Coast    of 

Africa) 

Italy 

British    Possessions     (West    Coast    of 

Africa) 

Sweden  and  Norway 

United  States  of  America 


Frs.       Cs. 

51,944,628.76 

1,786,869.55 

415.558.85 

213,602.45 

66,433-75 
63,471.62 

50.327-50 

22,074.48 

16,269.75 

6,238.00 

7,277.50 

2,500.00 
1,312.00 

820.00 
287.00 
164.00 


Frs.       Cs. 

60,119,981.46 

1,872,934.45 

1,293,801.56 

297,676.91 

85.057-75 
85,823.62 

50,327-50 

103.797-78 

16,269.75 

17.369-25 
7,277.50 

2,500.00 
1,312.00 

820.00 
2S7.00 
164.00 


54,597.835-21 


63.995-400.00 


282  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 


STATISTICS  OF  GOODS  IMPORTED  INTO  THE  CONGO  FREE 
STATE  DURING  1903 

Sumtnary 


Goods 


Values 


Special 
Commerce 


General 
Commerce 


Matches . 


Live  Ani- 
mals and 
Fodder 


Arms,  Am- 
munition, 
and  belts 


Boats,  En- 
gines, and 
Detached 
Pieces  for 
Boats 


C  Homed  Cattle 

Sheep 

Pigs 

Horses 

Donkeys  and  Mules 

Others 

Fodder 

Cannons 

Piston  Guns 

Flint  Guns 

Other  Guns  (Improved  Sys- 
tems)   

Pistols  and  Revolvers 

Charge  Pieces 

Side  Arms 

Cartridges 

Caps 

Gunpowder 

Ordinary  and  Blasting 
Powder 

Explosives 

Sundries 

Belts 

Steamers 

Engines  and  Boilers 

Charge   Pieces   for   Engines 
and  Boilers 

Boats  and  Sailing  Vessels.. 

Detached  Pieces  for  Boats .  . 

Canoes 

Sail-Cloth ; 

Anchors     and     Chains     for 
Navy 

Wood  for  Masts 

Other     Rigging     and     Ap- 
paratus   


Frs.  Cs. 
17,367.67 
15,360.00 

2,197.20 
48.00 

7.379-48 

10,370.40 

227.40 

1,654.08 
66,306.18 
34,788.66 
26,848.44 

68,215.97 

10,295.82 

23.516.53 

1,356.26 

292,323.80 

8,889.14 

167,024.44 

2,046.61 
48,183.67 
76,749.90 
33-720.30 
845.957-00 
30,920.00 

223,517.94 
66,950.00 

715,858.90 

22,981.20 

5,216.44 

2,585-71 
120.60 

8,781.91 


Frs.    Cs. 

21,375-79 
15,360.00 

2,197.20 
48.00 

7,379-48 

10,370.40 

227.40 

1 ,654.08 
66,306.18 
48,541.45 
74.585-18 

90,044.50 
12,347.82 

23.834-71 

1,356.26 

308,606.84 

16,558.34 
271,145.04 

2,963.41 
48,183.67 
79,268.93 
34,141.26 
845.957-00 
56,332.83 

302,308.83 
66,950.00 

715,858.90 

22,981.20 

6,553-18 

2,848.27 
120.60 

9,302.88 


N.  B. — The  Special  Commerce  includes  goods  for  consumption  which 
are  declared  directly  they  arrive,  or  at  the  time  of  their  removal  from 
the  warehouse. 

General  Commerce  embraces  all  goods  which  enter  the  territory  of 
the  State  that  may  be  declared  for  consumption,  transit,  or  warehouse. 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes 


^^Z 


Goods 


Values 


Special 
Commerce 


General 
Commerce 


Jewelry 
and 
Clock-work 


Liquors 


Fuel 


Gold  and  Silver  Jewelry 

Other  Jewelry 

Watches  and  Fittings 

Clocks  and  Alarums 

Carved  Wood  and  Wooden  Objects 

Beer 

Brandy,   at   50   Degrees  or 

Less 

Brandy,    at   more   than    50 

Degrees.  .  ;.• 

Other     Brandy     (including 

Liqueurs) 

Wines 

Candles 

Coffee 

Camping  Equipments 

f  Briquettes  of  Coal 

I  Coke 

Coal 

Charcoal 

Rope,  Cord,  and  Fishing  Implements.  .  .  . 
Colours,     Varnish,     and     Painters'     Ma- 
terials   

'  Canned  Meats,  Fish,  Vege- 
tables,   Butter,   Cheese, 

etc 

Starch,  Biscuits,  Flour,  etc.. 
Seeds  (Beans,  Oatmeal,  Len- 
tils, Barley,  etc.) 

Dried  Fish 

Potatoes  and  Onions 

Rice 

Salt.  ._. _ 

Sundries    (Spices,    Yeast, 

Tea,  etc) 

Chemicals 

Pottery  and  Earthenware 

Seeds  and  Berries 

Clothing  and  Lingerie 

Harness  and  Saddlery.  . 

Oils,         f  Petroleum 

Grease,  and  |  Oils,    Tar,    Grease, 

Bitumen     [      etc 

Tools,  Scientific  Apparatus,  etc. . . 

'  Engines 

Cars 


Alimentary 
Provisions 


Resin 


Machines, 


Frs.     Cs. 

183.30 

4, Sot). 60 

11,315.90 

5.S19.75 
287,143,01 
203,181.34 

96,725.40 

113,987.22 

85,148.69 
890,618.56 

39.473-91 

16,041.49 

60,143.52 

220,681.79 

103.20 

1,470.36 

I.574-83 

49.973-37 

90,181.70 


2,117,536.81 
378,337-04 

8,696.69 
516,216.60 

67,376-77 
412,772.93 
loi  ,206.70 

175,696.59 
42,450.49 
51,218.48 
33,491-80 
1,112,571.28 
35,262.87 
41,865.91 

126,940.40 

126,258.93 

29,400.00 

46,073.88 


Frs.     Cs 

183.30 

7.144 

11.635 

5.963 

325.245 

207,279 


1 16,101 

147,452 

133,834 

1,053,073 

49,133 

24,265 

66,217 

220,681 

103 

1.470 

1.574 

54.429 


64 
99 

91 
73 
16 

51 
44 
79 
20 

36 

83 
73 


96,694.46 


2,501,029.49 
478,102.87 

9.331-56 

547,529-61 

73,21 1.63 

472,494.35 

132.471-30 

220,038.06 
46,085.27 
58,014.07 
36,869.80 
1,284,929.00 
51,670.17 
44,597.69 

133,992.10 

134,216.20 

29,400.00 

46,073.88 


284  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 


Goods 


Values 


Special 
Commerce 


General 
Commerce 


Machinery, 

Tools, 
Telegraph 

and 
Telephone 
Apparatus, 
Metallic 
Structures 

Building 
Materials 


Metals 


Machines  and  Various  Ma- 
chinery   

Charge    Pieces    and    Acces 

sories 

Various  Tools 

Material  and  Apparatus  for 

Telegraph  and  Telephone 

Various  Metallic  Structures. 

Bricks 

Lime 

Cement 

Other  Material 

Mercery  and  Perfumery 

'  Steel  Bars 

Steel 

Steel  Rails 

Steel  Plates 

Other  Steel 

Copper  and  Brass 

Other  Copper  and  Brass.  .  . 

Tin 

Iron  Bars 

Pure  Iron 

Iron  Nails 

Iron 

Iron  Girders 

Sheet  Iron 

Other  Iron 

Mercury 

Lead 

Zinc 

Furniture  and  Furnishings 

Papers,     f  Account-Books  and  Papers. 

Cards,        I  Papers  and  Cards 

Office        j  Office    Stationery    and 
Stationery     [       Printed  Matter  (Sundry). 

Chemical  Products 

Pharmaceutical  Products 

Ironmongery    (Kitchen   Utensils,    House- 
hold Articles,  Sundries  such  as  Copper 

and  Iron  Bands,  Mirrors,  etc.) 

Soaps 

Tobacco     i  Cigars  and  Cigarettes 

(  Other  Tobacco 

Tissues      ^  Unbleached  Cotton 

(  Bleached  Cotton 


Frs.     Cs. 

244.595-21 

147,997.82 
300,770.38 

32,454-55 

337.512.43 

2,098.38 

13,166.52 

98,351-29 
116,396.30 

I35-047-3I 

596.46 

209.52 

378,287.50 

4,941.61 

1,335.60 

479,356.67 

21,452.05 

1,667.14 

885.32 

2,772.24 

55,678.83 

6,544-36 

602.48 

68,334.43 

32,279.45 

348.90 

1,489.99 

6,792.88 

119,458.27 

73.873-84 
28,598.79 

115,664.81 

63,644.81 

224,577.48 


640,032.60 

91,364-23 

80,874.89 

72,897.57 

835,792.11 

141,243.69 


Frs.     Cs. 

291,491.21 

150,092.90 
322,553.56 

40,776.55 

340,782.43 

2,098.38 

14,541.84 

100,560.41 

128,908.61 

163,413.99 

1,681.08 

2,292.10 

378,287.50 

7,587-61 

1,454-40 

522,850.66 

27,190.16 

1,979.14 

1,583-24 

2,772.24 

58,704.06 

9,386.68 

602.48 

77,021.87 

49,102.97 

348.90 

2,704-75 

8,515-78 

133,537-33 

76,413-49 

31,743-82 

139,694.47 

70,509-15 

248,789.45 


784,079.20 
106,753.67 
102,181.71 
91,313-90 
895,633-90 
180,482.79 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes 


285 


Values 

UOODS 

Special 
Commerce 

General 
Commerce 

r  Printed  Cotton 

Frs.     Cs. 

688,813.04 

3,966,602.10 

123.052.95 

446.94 

52,766.94 

1,060.20 

48,863.76 

190,920.12 

8,914.84 

6,99552 

2,036.26 

17.685.73 

58,068.92 

50,128.43 
253.278.71 

Frs.     Cs. 

772,302.83 

4,632,076.80 

132,819.78 

152.06 

446.94 

54,174.68 

1 ,060. 20 

Dyes   Cotton 

Other  Kinds,  Cotton 

Raw  Wool 

Woollen  Prints 

Woollen  Dyes 

Woollen  Cloth 

Tissues      \ 

Other  Wool 

60,844.02 

Hemp  and  Jute 

223.715-70 
14,228.44 

Silks 

Velvet 

9,300.42 

7,083.20 

22,616.82 

Shawls 

Carpet 

Awnings,    oil-cloth,    and 
Tarpaulin 

60,320.68 

58,606.07 

324,955.06 

f  Glassware 

and  Fancy 
Glass 

Fancy  Glass 

Totals 

20,896,331.02 

23.933.375-02 

IMPORTS 
Year  1903 

RECAPITULATORY  TABLE,  SHOWING  COUNTRIES  FROM 
WHICH  PRODUCTS  WERE  IMPORTED 


Countries 


Belgium 

England 

Germany 

France 

Low  Countriv?s 

Portuguese  Possessions  (Sea  Coast) 

Portugal 

Austria 

Denmark 

Italy 

Switzerland 


Special 
Commerce 


Frs.     Cs. 

15.699.535-09 

2.390.779-79 

639,098.72 

584,372.36 

491.758-23 

451.903-78 

155,500.81 

1 10,976.30 

85,195.04 

76,616.46 

69,763.40 


General 
Commerce 


Frs.       Cs. 

16,524,451.18 

2,790,509.07 

781,608.72 

1,724,921.27 

975.031-13 
478,443.69 

160,004.16 

115.275-70 

85,607.06 

81,730.76 

69,857.22 


286  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 


Countries 


English  Possessions  (East  Coast, 

Africa) 

Spain  (Canary  Isles) 

Zanzibar 

Sweden  and  Norway 

Portuguese   Possessions   (Left  Bank  of 

the  Congo) 

British      Possessions       (West      Coast, 

Africa) 

United  States  of  America 

Senegal 

Algeria 

Spain 

French  Possessions  (Upper  Congo) 

German  Possessions  (East  Coast, 

Africa) 

Grand  Duchy  of  Luxembourg 

Republic  of  Liberia 

Totals 


Special 
Commerce 


Frs.       Cs. 

59,210.70 
27,645.02 
13,301.28 
1 1,790.87 

8,245.69 

5,467.20 

5.274-33 
4,800.00 
2,647.20 

i>i4i-55 
731.28 

434.82 
84.00 
60.00 


>, 331-02 


General 
Commerce 


Frs.      Cs. 

5,210.079 
27,645.02 
13,301.28 
12,077.07 

8,245.69 

5,467.20 
9,285.88 
4,800.00 
2,971.20 
1,166.03 
1,121.28 

434.82 

148.86 

60.00 


23.933.375-02 


COMPARISON  OF  IMPORTS  FOR  1903  WITH  THOSE  OF  PRE- 
CEDING YEARS 


Years 


From  May  9th  to  December  31st,  1892^. 
Year  1893 


i»94. 
1895. 
1896. 
1897. 


1900. 
1901 . 
1902. 
1903. 


Values 


Special 
Commerce 


Frs.     Cs. 

4,984,455-15 
9. 175. 103. 34 
1 1,194,722.96 
10,685,847.99 
15,227,776.44 
22,181,462.49 
23,084,446.65 
22,325,846.71 
24,724,108.91 
23,102,064.07 
18,080,909.25 
20,896,331.02 


General 
Commerce 


Frs.  Cs. 
5,679,195.16 
10,148,418.26 
1 1,854,021.72 
11,836,033.76 
16,040,370.80 
23,427,197.83 
25,185,138.66 
27,102,581.18 
31,803,213.96 
26,793,079.37 
20,699,723.98 
23.933.37502 


I  The  collection  of  import  duty  commenced  May  9,  1892. 


at 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes  287 

These  tables  show  what  has  provided  the  enemies 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  with  a  great  deal  of  puerile 
prattle — an  excess  of  exports  over  imports  which  is 
more  apparent  than  real.  One  of  the  bitter  critics 
who  write  from  Liverpool  repeats  the  charge  in  the 
press  that  the  Sovereign  of  the  Free  State  is  denud- 
ing the  Congo  of  its  natural  resources  by  exporting 
inore  than  he  imports.  In  this  respect  a  German 
writer  in  Der  Tag,  Berlin,  September,  26,  1904,  not  at 
all  friendly  to  the  Congo  State  (because  it  is  divert- 
ing the  Zanzibar  trade  of  the  Fatherland),  has  some 
pertinent  things  to  say  of  the  excess  of  exports  over 
imports  in  the  British  colonies  of  South  Nigeria  and 
Lagos.  Herr  Eberhard  von  Schkopp  discusses  the 
Congolese,  British,  French,  and  German  trade  statis- 
tics in  the  following  concise  manner: 

In  I  go  I  the  Congo  State  importations  reached  twenty- 
three  million  francs  whilst  the  exports  attained  fifty  millions, 
and  the  transit  trade  seven  millions.  This  excess  of  exports 
over  imports  has  been  turned  to  account  to  support  the  at- 
tacks— justified  besides — upon  the  Congo  State's  system  of 
government. 

If  that  circumstance  is  of  a  kind  to  weigh  in  the  balance, 
it  ought  to  be  imputed  as  a  ground  of  complaint  against  all 
nations  carrying  on  a  practical  colonial  policy,  and  whose 
possessions  export  more  than  they  import.  The  Congo  State 
is  neither  the  only  nor  even  the  first  colony  where  this  excess 
has  been  exhibited. 

The  exports  of  the  English  colony  of  South  Nigeria  have 
always  surpassed  the  imports.     Here  are  the  figures: 

1896         1897         1898         1899         1900 
Imports .  .750,000     655,000     640,000     732,000     723,000  pounds  ster. 
Exports .  .844,000     785,000      750,000      774,000     888,000  pounds  ster. 


288  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Statistics  of  the  trade  of  the  EngUsh  colon}'-  of  Lagos: 

1896  I'^f^?  1898         1899  1900 

Imports.  .881,000     758,000     892,000     960,000     832,000  pounds  ster. 
Exports.  .975,000     810,000     882,000     915,000     885,000  pounds  stcr. 

Here  also,  except  for  1898  and  1899,  the  total  of  exports 
exceeds  that  of  imports.  The  case  is  the  same  with  the  com- 
merce of  the  Gold  Coast  and  the  Gambia. 

The  French  colonies  also — Ivory  Coast,  Dahomey,  Guinea, 
and  French  Congo — can  also  boast  of  having  frequently  had 
their  exports  higher  than  their  imports. 

No  one  has  ever  yet  pretended  to  make  that  a  grievance 
against  the  English  and  the  French,  and  it  must  appear  aston- 
ishing that  the  favourable  trade  statistics  of  the  Congo  State 
should  lead  to  an  attack  on  the  system  of  its  administration. 

It  would  be  very  desirable  if,  following  the  example  of  the 
Congo  State,  and  as  we  have  seen  of  the  English  and  French 
colonies,  our  possessions  [the  German]  across  the  sea  were  to 
show  exports  exceeding  their  imports.  For  a  commercial 
firm  that  is  the  best  proof  of  success,  and  it  cannot  in  any 
way  be  concluded  from  this  fact  that  the  "poor"  blacks  of 
Africa  are  being  exploited  by  Europeans  devoid  of  conscience. 

But  let  us  see  if  the  Congo  State  exports  really  do 
exceed  the  imports,  and  if  so,  by  what  sum.  The 
exports  of  the  State  are  estimated  in  the  tables  at 
their  value  in  Antwerp,  after  they  have  been  har- 
vested, prepared  for  transport  from  remote  parts  of 
the  Congo  Basin,  stood  charges  of  porterage,  freight, 
export  duties,  taxes,  insurance,  brokerage  at  the 
African  and  European  terminals,  and  merchant  pro- 
fits of  an  indefinite  measure — in  all,  at  least  half 
their  European  value.  The  original  value  of  Cen- 
tral African  ivory,  rubber,  palm  oil,  gum  copal,  and 
other  exports  is,  in  fact,  less  than  half  their  market 
value  in  Europe.     In  other  words,  if  the  exports  of 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes  289 

the  Congo  State  were  estimated  at  their  value  as  they 
left  the  forests  or  the  native  collector,  instead  of 
aggregating  54,597,835.21  francs  for  the  year  1903, 
they  would  show  but  27,298,917.16  francs. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  imports,  also  estimated  at 
their  European  value,  but  having  similar  distances 
to  undergo  and  similar  charges  to  bear,  represent 
when  they  reach  their  consumers  at  least  double  their 
invoiced  European  cost.  On  a  proper  basis  of  value 
in  their  ultimate  African  market  the  imports  for  the 
year  1903  would  amount  to  42,792,662.04  francs. 
Thus  the  exports  would  stand  at  27,298,917.16 
francs,  and  the  imports  at  42,792,662.04  francs  for 
the  year  1903. 

But  even  this  is  not  a  just  comparison  with  the 
exports  and  imports  of  the  British  colonies,  inas- 
much as  in  the  colony  of  Lagos,  for  instance,  the 
imports  include  about  sixty-five  per  cent,  of  alco- 
holic liquors,'  leaving  the  native  the  beneficiary  of  an 

'  The  revenue  of  the  British  colony  of  Lagos  for  the  last  three  years 
available  was  derived  as  follows: 

1898  1899  1900-1 

Fes.  Fes.  Fes. 

Alcohol 3,386,450.00  3,288,250.00  3,345,850.00 

Tobacco 273,250.00  266,125.00  379,150.00 

Salt 40,075.00  43,750.00  140,800.00 

Cotton  Goods 428,075.00  382,850.00  432,450.00 

Other  Articles 366,650.00  661,350.00  799,775.00 

The  following  is  a  comparison  between  the  alcoholic  liquor  imported 
into  Lagos  and  the  Congo  Free  State: 

Lagos  Congo  Free  State 

Gin 463,380  gallons 

Rum 129,780 

Whiskey 8,100 

601,260       "       Total  consumption  =  43,300  gallons. 
Thus  for  every  gallon  of  alcohol  imported  into  the  Congo  Free  State 
19 


290         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

aggregate  import  of  really  civilising  products  of  only 
thirty-five  per  cent,  of  the  total,  while  the  Congo 
imports,  containing  only  five  per  cent,  of  alcoholic 
liquors,  bestows  ux)on  the  native  legitimate  products 
for  his  civilisation  to  the  extent  of  ninety-five  per 
cent,  of  the  total  of  all  the  imports  of  the  State. 
Deducting,  therefore,  from  the  Lagos  imports  sixty 
of  their  sixty -five  per  cent,  of  gin,  rum,  and  whisky, 
thereby  placing  them  on  an  equation  with  the  im- 
ports of  the  Congo,  we  find  in  Herr  von  Schkopp's 
figures  an  arraignment  of  Lagos  "civilisation"  which 
indicates  where  the  real  curse  of  Central  Africa  abides. 
The  foregoing  is  an  astonishing  record  of  exports  and 
imports  for  a  country  practically  developed  in  the 
short  period  which  has  elapsed  since  1886.  Congolese 
products  are  largely  sent  to  Antwerp  and,  as  the 
tables  show,  Belgium  is  by  far  the  largest  exporter 
and  importer.  A  few  years  ago  England  was  the 
chief  exporter  to  the  Congo  of  its  cotton  stuffs  and 
other  goods,  but  the  same  laggard  spirit  which 
caused  Englishmen  once  interested  in  the  Anglo- 
Belgian  India-Rubber  Company  (known  as  the  Abir) 
and  other  undertakings  to  abandon  their  Congolese 
enterprises  has  lost  England  a  large  and  growing 
market  in  Central  Africa.  That  the  Belgians  have 
developed  the  Mid-African  trade  by  dint  of  hard 
work,  organisation,  and  the  risk  of  capital,  is  a  state 
of  things  intolerable  to  those  who  have  neglected 
and  lost  it.  The  awkward  English  monetary  system 
is  alone  responsible  for  a  large  percentage  of  the 

(1,000,000  square  miles  in  area,)  there  are  imported  into  British  Lagos 
(3,460  square  miles  in  area),  thirteen  and  seven-tenths  gallons,  or  as 
5  per  cent,  is  to  68J  per  cent,  of  total  revenue. 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes  291 

world-wide  diminution  of  British  trade.  All  other 
nations  have  shown  greater  adaptability  to  the 
characteristics  of  foreign  markets,  and  the  capabil- 
ities and  peculiarities  of  the  peoples  who  compose 
those  markets.  The  Germans,  French,  and  Ameri- 
cans circulate  their  catalogues  and  price  lists  in  the 
language  of  the  country  where  they  seek  a  market 
and  quote  prices  in  its  coin,  giving  the  equivalents 
in  francs,  marks,  and  dollars.  British  merchants, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  adhered  to  their  ancient 
custom  of  employing  a  monetary  system  so  need- 
lessly cumbersome  that  it  can  hardly  be  attributed 
to  intelligent  origin. 

Belgian  manufacturers  have  patiently  studied  the 
needs  of  the  natives  and  have  successfully  endeav- 
oured to  supply  them  with  the  textures  and  food 
stuffs,  machinery,  agricultural  implements,  and 
building  material  which,  being  of  simple  construction, 
they  are  capable  of  putting  to  intelligent  use. 

The  mineral  wealth  of  the  country  which  prospect- 
ing during  the  last  five  years  has  revealed  in  many 
sections  of  the  Congo  Basin,  it  is  not  the  purpose 
of  this  volume  to  more  than  mention.  Fine  out- 
croppings  of  gold,  coal,  and  copper  have  been  dis- 
covered in  the  Katanga  district  in  the  south-eastern 
comer  of  the  State.  It  has  lately  been  rumoured  in 
Europe  that  foreign  prospectors  have  discovered  ter- 
ritory marvellously  rich  in  gold  near  the  borders  of 
British  East  Africa  in  the  south,  and  again  in  the  En- 
clave of  Lado  in  the  north.  On  this  subject,  and  the 
likelihood  of  early  and  interesting  mineral  develop- 
ments in  that  region,  the  Congo  State  authorities 


292  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

appear  to  have  considerable  knowledge.  They  do 
not,  however,  discuss  the  matter  with  any  degree  of 
candour.  When  the  secret  of  certain  political  phases 
of  Congolese  history  shall  have  been  revealed,  a  con- 
nexion may  be  found  between  the  mining  and  rubber 
industry  and  the  calumnious  campaign  now  pro- 
ceeding against  the  State.  But  with  that  story,  the 
present  volume  has  naught  to  do. 

The  State's  revenue,  consisting  of  import  and  ex- 
port dues,  tolls,  excise,  and  direct  personal  taxation, 
is  indicated  in  the  following  table: 


1902 

Nature  of  Receipts 

1903 

Estimates 

Estimates 

Frs. 

3,000.00 
70,000.00 

6,055,000.00 
580,000.00 

Registration  Taxes 

Frs. 
3,000.00 

20,000.00 

6,150,000.00 

600,000.00 

Sale  and  Letting  of  Domanial  Land, 

Timber  Felling,  etc 

'  Customs  Duties  on  Exports,                ] 
Frs.  4,550,000.00                        1 
■   Customs  Duties  on  Imports,  includ-  \ 
ing  the  Duties  on  Alcohol, 
Frs.  1,600,000.00 
Direct  Personal  Taxation 

Road  Tolls 

1 ,000.00 

125,000.00 

155,000.00 

55,000.00 

25,000.00 

8,000.00 

4,160,000.00 

Taxes  on  Timber  Felling 

Postal  Receipts 

Maritime  Rates  .  .  .• 

Judicial  Receipts 

Chancery  Duties 

Transport,   and  Different  Services 
of  the  State 

140,000.00 

155,000.00 

60,000.00 

25,000.00 

6,000.00 

3,100,000.00 
60,000.00 

16,440,000.00 
1,100,000.00 

105,000.00 
125,000.00 

60,000.00 
15,452,000.00 

1,703,000.00 
122,000.00 

135,000.00 

Taxes  on  Portage 

Proceeds  from  the  Private  Domain 
of  the  State,  from  Tributes  and 
Taxes  Paidin  Kind  by  the  Natives 

Interests  and  Dividends 

Fees  for  Licences  Granted  to  Con- 
golese Companies 

Extra  and  Casual  Receipts 

Total  Receipts 

28,709,000.00 

28,090,000.00 

Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes  293 

It  will  be  observed  that  by  far  the  greater  propor- 
tion of  the  State's  revenue  is  derived  from  the  State 
lands  (Domatne  prtve),  which  is  fully  considered  in 
a  succeeding  chapter.  Direct  personal  taxation  is  a 
comparatively  small  item,  being  only  600,000  francs, 
or  one  forty-seventh  part  of  the  year's  budget.  Im- 
port duties,  including  duties  on  alcohol,  are  only 
1,600,000  francs,  while  duties  on  exports  amount  to 
4,550,000  francs.  These  duties  were,  as  hereinbefore 
stated,  fixed  by  arrangement  with  France  and  Por- 
tugal on  April  8,  1892,  for  a  term  of  ten  years,  and 
by  a  protocol  dated  May  10,  1902,  extended  until 
July  2,  1905. 

The  export  duty  collected  on  India-rubber  and 
ivory  under  these  tariff  agreements  between  the  in- 
terested Powers  are  as  follows: 

Ivory,  in  pieces  or  sticks Frs.  lo  per  kilo. 

Tusks  of  less  weight  than  6  kilos "      16    " 

Tusks  above  6  kilos,  in  weight "     21    "        " 

India-rubber "       4    "       " 

"Personal  taxes,"  says  Descamps,  "are  levied 
upon  three  bases :  i ,  The  area  of  inhabited  buildings 
and  enclosures;  2,  the  number  of  employes  in  ser- 
vice; 3,  the  ships  and  boats  used  by  tax-payers." 
As  to  the  taxes  en  nature,  levied  upon  the  natives  and 
already  referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter,  the  Chev- 
alier de  Cuvelier,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  Congo 
Free  State,  says  in  his  official  capacity  in  the  Bulletin 
Ofpciel  for  June,  1903,  that  "it  is  as  legitimate  as  any 
other  kind  of  tax.  It  does  not  impose  upon  the 
native  obligations  of  a  different  nature  or  heavier 
than  the  system  of  taxation  employed  in  neighbour- 


294         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

ing  colonies,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  British  hut- 
tax.  It  is  the  native's  contribution  to  the  pubhc 
charges  incurred  by  the  State  in  exchange  for  the 
protection  given  him.  In  the  Congo  State  this  par- 
ticipation in  the  State's  support  is  hght,  seeing  that 
it  represents  on  an  average  not  more  than  forty 
hours  of  native  labour  in  a  month."  It  is  the  pay- 
ment of  tax  in  this  form  that  the  State  terms  presta- 
tion, which,  if  literally  translated,  would  mean 
enforced  labour  upon  roads. 

In  1902  a  general  reduction  of  direct  taxation  was 
decreed.  At  the  same  time  the  taxation  of  all  re- 
ligious, charitable,  and  scientific  institutions  and 
enterprises  was  reduced  to  50  per  cent,  of  the  rate 
which  prevailed  when  the  State  had  no  revenue  from 
import  dues  or  from  its  domain  lands.  By  a  decree 
of  25th  June,  1902,  all  personal  taxes  are  entitled  to 
one-fifth  reduction  so  long  as  the  State  lands  {do- 
maine),  tributes,  and  taxes  in  kind,  yield  the  sum  of 
17,000,000  francs  annually.  In  order  to  develop 
and  extend  the  public  highways,  and  works  increas- 
ing the  facilities  of  commerce,  religion,  agriculture, 
etc.,  the  native  prestations  and  their  proper  distri- 
bution have  formed  the  subject  of  numerous  decrees, 
all  seeking  to  equitably  adjust  this  form  of  taxation. 
One  of  the  later  decrees,  that  of  i8th  November, 
1903,  provides,  amongst  other  measures  protective 
of  the  native,  that  "In  order  to  fix  the  tax  justly  and 
equitably  among  the  natives,  the  territorial  chiefs 
must  take  into  account  the  nature  of  the  work  to  be 
done,  the  age  and  the  skill  of  the  natives  subjected 
to  the  prestation,  and  finally  the  obligation  of  the 


g 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes  295 

State  to  remunerate  the  natives  for  all  work  done 
by  them."^ 

The  items  constituting  the  State's  annual  ex- 
penditure throw  an  interesting  light  on  the  subject  of 
these  native  prestations  in  the  Congo  State.  The 
State's  enemies  found  their  charges  of  slavery  largely 
upon  the  fact  that  the  State  enforces  this  labour 
upon  the  natives  instead  of  imposing  a  tax  in  specie. 
In  1903  the  State  paid  to  its  European  officials  and 
employes  in  the  Congo  force  puhlique  the  sum  of 
1,800,000  francs,  whereas  during  the  same  period 
the  wages  it  paid  to  natives  in  the  same  service 
amounted  to  2,050,000  francs.  In  developing  the 
State  lands  at  a  cost  of  6,014,790  francs  during  that 
year,  the  sum  of  2,802,190  francs  was  paid  to  natives 
as  wages.  For  extending  agriculture  and  replant- 
ing India-rubber  vines  the  sum  of  1,373,932  francs 
was  expended  in  1903.  The  following  items,  taken 
from  the  table  of  expenditure  for  the  same  year,  may 
be  interesting: 

Home  Department 

Frs. 

The  Administrative  Service  of  Europe 165,000.00 

The  Administrative  Service  of  Africa 3,180,310.00 

The  Army 7,701,765.00 

Naval  Expenditure 2,023,376.00 

Sanitary  Department 504,120.00 

Public  Works _. _ 1,081,885.00 

Missions  and  Educational  Establishments 121,425.00 

Expenses   relating  to  some   Transports  in   Africa,   not 

Drawn  up  in  the  Budget 1,600,000.00 

Financial  Department 

The  Administrative  Ser\'ice  of  Europe 99,000.00 

The  Administrative  Service  of  Africa 503,065.00 

Agriculture 1,373,932.00 

Exploitation  of  the  Domain 6,041,790.00 

Savings-Bank,    Interest  of  the   Loans  and  Guaranteed 

Stock 1,656,228.00 

'  Report  of  Vice-Govcrnor-Gcncral,  July  1904.  " 


i^ 


296  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Foreign  Office  and  Justice 

Administrative  Service  of  Europe 227,100.00 

Postal  Department 66,000.00 

Navigation 140,200.00 

Justice 910,000.00 

Worship 250,000.00 

The  currency  of  the  Congo  Free  State  consists  of 
copper,  silver,  and  gold  coins  and  paper  notes.  The 
former  are  issued  under  a  decree  of  27th  July,  1887, 
which  established  the  monetary  system  upon  the  gold 
standard.  The  gold  coins  are  of  the  value  of  twenty 
francs;  the  silver  coins  are  the  five,  two,  one  franc, 
and  the  fifty  centime  piece.  The  copper  coins  are 
the  ten,  five,  two,  and  one  centime  pieces. 

Paper  Currency.  By  a  decree  of  February  7,  1896,  with 
the  object  of  faciUtating  business  transactions  between  the 
different  parts  of  the  State,  banknotes  of  the  State,  payable  to 
the  bearer  at  the  General  Treasury  of  the  Congo  Free  State, 
in  Brussels,  were  issued.  This  decree  sanctioned  a  first  issue 
of  notes  to  the  value  of  400,000  francs. 

An  order  of  the  Secretary  of  State  of  February  8,  1896, 
limited  the  value  of  the  issued  notes  to  a  sum  of  269,850 
francs,  comprising  2,000  notes  of  100  francs  each,  and  6,985 
ten  franc  notes. 

Formerly,  in  the  Lower  Congo,  agents  of  the  State  and 
merchants  were  accustomed  to  give  the  natives,  in  exchange 
for  their  services,  a  mokande  or  cheque,  which  enabled  them 
to  purchase  what  they  required  at  the  factories. 

It  is  evident  that  silver,  copper,  and  paper  currency  of  the 
State  have  a  great  advantage  over  the  mokande  or  cheque 
system,  these  latter  often  being  only  payable  at  a  fixed  date 
and  by  certain  persons.  At  first  the  circulation  of  money 
was  slow  and  difficult.  It  was  only  with  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  that  foreign  money  was  displaced  in  the  Lower  Congo, 
and  in  the  interior  there  was  the  same  difhculty  in  abolishing 
the  custom  of  barter,  and  the  usage  of  the  mitako,  or  brass  wire. 


Trade,  Revenue,  and  Taxes  297 

Finally,  to  accelerate  the  introduction  of  State  currency, 
the  Government  decreed: 

1.  To  pay  the  soldiers  and  native  workmen  in  cash,  and 
also  to  pay  in  the  same  manner  for  all  goods  bought  from  the 
natives  by  the  State ; 

2.  To  stop  all  payments  in  kind  at  the  stations  of  the 
Lower  Congo; 

3.  To  substitute  for  the  rations  formerly  issued  by  the 
State  to  the  agents,  an  equivalent  in  cash,  and  so  forth. 

Immediately  after  the  enforcing  of  these  measures  the 
State  currency  began  to  circulate  rapidly,  and  merchants  no 
longer  hesitated  to  open  retail  stores,  where  the  natives  in 
the  employment  of  the  State  and  commercial  companies, 
and  other  natives  as  well,  came  to  exchange  their  money  for 
European  goods. 

At  the  present  time,  in  the  region  south  of  Stanley  Pool,  the 
greater  part  of  the  commercial  transactions  between  Euro- 
peans and  natives  is  carried  on  through  the  medium  of  the 
State  currency,  and  in  the  native  markets  it  is  no  longer 
possible  to  purchase  anything  except  with  the  silver  or  copper 
Congolese  money — the  preference  being  given  to  silver.* 

The  native's  love  of  tinsel  causes  a  large  quantity 
of  the  silver  and  copper  coins  put  into  circulation  to 
disappear  from  the  sphere  of  commerce.  Congolese 
vanity  manifests  itself  in  many  forms.  Necklaces, 
earrings,  bracelets,  anklets,  and  other  ornaments  are 
made  of  the  State  coins,  and  worn  by  the  men  and 
women  of  all  the  tribes  which  come  in  touch  with 
the  Congo  coinage.  Powerful  chiefs  are  often  buried 
with  many  coins  placed  upon  their  bodies. 

'  Descamps. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
MISSIONS  AND  SCHOOLS 

IT  will  be  remembered  that  clause  VI.  of  the  Ber- 
lin Act  enacts  that  "They  [the  interested 
Powers]  shall,  without  distinction  of  creed  or 
nation,  protect  and  favour  all  religions,  scientific 
or  charitable  institutions,  and  undertakings  created 
Berlin  ^^^  Organised  for  the  above  ends,  or  which 
Act  on  aim  at  instructing  the  natives,  and  bringing 
Missions.  -j^QijiQ  -to  them  the  blessings  of  civilisation. 
Christian  missionaries,  scientists,  and  explorers,  with 
their  followers,  property,  and  collections,  shall  like- 
wise be  the  object  of  especial  protection." 

For  this  enlightened  enactment  the  thanks  of  the 
world  are  due  to  the  Count  de  Launay,  of  Italy.  In 
proposing  its  inclusion  in  the  Berlin  Act,  Count  de 
Launay  said :"  It  is  to  scientific  men  and  explorers 
that  we  owe  the  marvellous  discoveries  made  during 
these  latter  years  in  Africa.  The  missionaries,  for 
their  part,  lend  valuable  assistance  in  winning  these 
countries  over  to  the  civilisation  which  is  inseparable 
from  religion.  It  is  our  duty  to  encourage  them,  to 
protect  them  all,  both  present  and  future." 

How  faithfully  the  Congo  Government  has  carried 
out  clause'  VI.  of  the  Berlin  Act,  impartially  and 
completely  administering  it  in  the  spirit  in  which  it 

298 


Missions  and  Schools  299 

was  conceived,  is  apparent  in  the  number  and  diver- 
sity of  the  Christian  missions  at  present  existing  in 
the  Congo  State. 

Upon  Protestants  rests  the  honour  of  being  first 
in  the  endeavour  to  evangehse  the  races  inhabiting 
the  countries  of  the  Congo  Free  State.     Of 

,     .  .      .  1       -r»         •        -i>T-        Protestant 

their  numerous  missions,  the  Baptist  Mis-  Missions, 
sionar}^  Society  of  London  was  first  in  the 
field,  it  having  been  estabhshed  so  long  ago  as  1877. 
It  has  posts  at  Matadi,  Tumba,  Takussu,  Bopoto, 
Monsembe,  Bolobo,  Lukolela,  Kinshassa,  and  Gombe 
Lutete,  and  its  missionaries  are  the  Messrs.  George 
Grenfell,  Ross  Phillips,  J.  H.  Weecks,  A.  E.  Scrive- 
ner, Kerend  Smiths,  Lawson  Forfeit,  Whitehead, 
Stapleton,  Bentley,  J.  Howell,  Kirkland,  Frame,  and 
Kempton. 

Next,  in  respect  of  age,  comes  the  American  Baptist 
Missionary  Union,  founded  in  1883,  which  now  in- 
cludes the  earlier  Livingstone  Inland  Mission,  founded 
in  1879.  It  has  posts  at  Matadi,  Pallaballa,  Lu- 
kungu,  Kimpese,  Banza,  Leopoldville,  and  Bolengi, 
and  is  served  by  the  Messrs.  C.  H.  Harvey,  A.  M.  D. 
Sims,  W.  S.  Leslie,  J.  Clarke,  and  Faris. 

The  Congo  Balolo  Mission  is  very  active.  Though 
it  has  but  six  posts — Lulangi,  Bongandanga,  Bon- 
ginda,  Ikau,  Leopoldville,  and  Baringa — it  has  a 
numerous  staff,  including  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morgan, 
Gilchrist,  Whiteside,  Armstrong,  Ellery,  Lawes, 
Ruskin,  Gamman,  Jeffrey,  Harris,  and  Frost;  the 
Messrs.  Beale,  Bond,  Padfield,  Rankin,  Boudot, 
Wallbaum,  Steel,  McDonald,  and  Stannard;  and  the 
Misses  Padfield,  Cork,  and  Amory. 


300         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Other  important  missions  are  the  Christian  and 
Missionary  AlHance,  the  Swedish  Missionary  Society, 
the  Garenganze  EvangeHcal  Mission,  the  Foreign 
Christian  Missionary  Society,  and  the  Bishop  Taylor 
Self-Supporting  Mission. 

Each  mission  owns  lands,  either  absolutely  or  in 
tenancy,  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  Corporation 
heading  the  list  with  no  fewer  than  fifteen,  being 
followed  by  the  American  Baptist  Missionary'  Union 
with  fourteen,  and  the  International  Missionary 
Alliance  with  thirteen.  The  other  missions  have 
between  one  and  eight  locations  each,  their  field  of 
action  being  throughout  the  Upper,  Middle,  and 
Lower  Congo. 

All  these  missions  are  Protestant.  Their  work  is 
done  by  between  two  and  three  hundred  white  mis- 
sionaries, to  say  nothing  of  native  evangelists,  and 
they  dispose  of  a  considerable  revenue,  subscribed, 
for  the  most  part,  by  the  Protestants  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States. 

Of  the  five  large  missionary  steamers  in  the  Congo 
State,  four  are  owned  by  Protestants.  The  Peace 
and  the  Goodwill  belong  to  the  English 
steamers  Baptist  Mission,  the  Henri  Reed  to  the 
American  Baptist  Mission,  and  the  Pioneer 
to  the  English  Balololand  Mission.  Roman  Catholics 
own  only  one  mission  steamer,  Our  Lady  of  Per- 
petual Help^ 

As  might  be  expected  from  its  history,  the  pre- 
vailing faith  in  Congoland  is  the  Roman  Catholic. 

^  In  the  French  Congo  there  is  only  one  small  launch  devoted  to 
missionary  work. 


Missions  and  Schools  301 

The  Congo  Free  State  tolerates  all  religions,  no  one 
of  them  enjoying  a  privilege  denied  to  the  others. 
Unfortunately  the  Protestants  are  split  up  Roman 
into  several  sects;  but  there  is  no  division  Catholic 
among  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  this  fact  ^^^sions. 
has  resulted  largely  in  favour  of  the  growth  of  the 
latter. 

The  White  Fathers  began  their  mission  in  Congo- 
land  in  1878,  a  year  later  than  the  first  Protestant 
mission.  They  were  followed  by  the  Scheut  Fathers 
in  1888;  the  Trappists,  1892;  the  Jesuits,  1893;  the 
Priests  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  1897;  the  Premontre 
Fathers,  1898 ;  and  the  Redemptionists,  1899.  There 
are  also  the  missionaries  of  the  Ghent  Sisters  of 
Charit}',  the  Sisters  of  Notre  Dame,  the  Trappistines, 
the  Franciscans,  and  the  Sisters  of  the  Sacred  Heart 
of  Mary. 

The  wide-reaching  results  of  the  earnest  labours 
of  these  self-denying  evangelists  is  apparent  in  the 
existence  to-day  of  59  permanent  and  29  temporary 
posts ;  384  missionaries  and  sisters  1528  farm  chapels ; 
113  churches  and  chapels;  523  oratories;  3  schools 
of  the  second  degree;  75  primary  schools;  440  ele- 
mentary schools  (in  which  native  teachers  instruct 
in  the  elements  of  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic) ; 
7  hospitals,  71  Christian  villages,  and  72,383  Chris- 
tians and  catechumens. 

From  statistics  such  as  these,  pregnant  as  they 
are  with  proof  of  the  onward  march  of  civilisation, 
it  is  a  relief  to  turn  to  records  in  words.  Here  are 
two  extracts  from  a  diary  kept  by  the  Rev.  Father 
Orison,  missionary  in  charge  of  St.  Gabriel's,  Stanley 


302  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Falls.  The  diar}^  from  which  they  are  taken  was 
written  in  odd  moments  snatched  from  an  excep- 
tionally busy  life  in  a  far-off  land,  with  no  idea  that 
any  line  of  it  would  ever  be  given  to  the  world. 

Aug.  i6,  1902.  Yesterday  we  had  17  baptisms  and  I  ad- 
ministered Holy  Communion  to  more  than  300  people. 

Holy  Week.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  colour  of  the  con- 
gregation kneeling  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  you  could 
not  have  believed  you  were  in  Central  Africa.  The  church 
was  filled  with  flowers,  and  a  large  number  of  people  kept 
coming  during  the  whole  time. 

We  did  not  know  exactly  how  things  were  going  on  at 
Banalya,  but  we  did  hear  that  our  Christians  were  prosperous 
and  had  won  over  several  catechumens.  As  soon  as  we  came 
within  a  distance  of  about  one  and  a  half  hours  from  the 
place,  a  number  of  the  village  people  came  out  to  meet  us, 
laughing,  singing,  and  kneeling  in  the  mud  of  the  marshes 
for  our  benediction.  They  told  us  that  some  little  catechists, 
who  could  hardly  read  themselves,  had  managed  to  teach  a 
number  of  the  others  to  pray  every  morning  and  every  even- 
ing, and  then  to  teach  them  some  catechism,  so  when  we  came 
over  we  found  that  a  large  number  of  the  people  had  already 
been  converted.  We  immediately  landed  150  catechumens  at 
Banalya,  80  at  Yambuga,  and  nearly  200  at  Basoko,  where 
a  young  woman,  baptised  the  year  before, — although  she  is 
iinable  to  read, — superintends  morning  and  evening  prayer 
for  the  whole  village. 

The  following,  from  the  diary  of  the  Rev.  Father 
Wulfers,  written  at  Yanonghi  (Romee  Mission), 
June  22,  1902,  accurately  portrays  the  hopes  and 
fears,  the  triumphs  and  disappointments,  which 
attend  the  life  of  a  missionary  in  Central  Africa. 


M 


Missions  and  Schools  303 

Our  Station  is  flourishing.  We  have  a  fine  spring  of  rock 
water  near  the  house,  and  a  beautiful  vista  across  the  river, 
about  two  miles  wide.  The  cofTee  groves  begin  near  the  house, 
affording  shaded  walks  for  hours.  Within  a  short  distance, 
we  find  the  Arab  settlements;  and,  somewhat  further  away 
from  the  river,  immense  rice  fields.  Fruits  and  agricultural 
products  abound.  It  is  from  here  that  rice  is  supplied  for 
a  number  of  stations  and  missions,  all  the  way  down  to  the 
Falls  and  Leopoldville.  The  missionary  of  Romee  supplies 
our  other  posts  with  large  quantities  of  rice,  besides  the  seeds 
furnished  b}^  the  State  Agricultural  Station,  and  a  number  of 
articles  which  we  get  from  the  Arabs  in  exchange  for  cotton 
cloth.  Of  course  everything  has  to  be  bought;  they  will 
give  nothing  for  nothing.  The  railroad — Romee-Ponthier- 
ville — will  start  from  here.  The  survey  is  progressing.  That 
branch  will  help  to  avoid  the  rapids  on  the  river  on  both  sides 
of  Bertha  Island  and  the  Lakes,  which  frequently  interfere  with 
navigation.  Our  situation,  therefore,  is  pretty  good  from  the 
material  point  of  view;  but,  of  course,  we  have  some  troubles. 
The  Arabs  are  not  peaceful,  and  the  State  contemplates 
the  establishment  of  a  military  post  here  to  protect  the  whites 
against  them  and  the  Turumbus,  who  are  fierce  cannibals. 
When  Monseigneur  van  Ronsle  was  here  last  year,  he  wanted 
to  establish  a  mission  at  Romee,  because  the  State  maintains 
there  a  force  of  about  600  men  to  protect  the  new  rubber 
plantation.  At  present  there  are  here  about  120  catechumens 
and  20  Christians.  I  baptised  ten  of  them  last  March  and 
three  in  May.  They  come  to  Mass  every  Sunday,  sometimes 
arriving  Saturday  evening  to  sleep  here.  I  expect  to  have 
a  great  many  more  Christians  when  the  work  on  the  railroad 
begins.  Although  the  Turumbus  are  still  very  savage,  I  hope 
to  do  a  good  deal  with  them,  for  they  have  already  helped 
me  to  build  my  house.  Yesterday  I  gave  them  some  pre- 
sents. One  got  a  pipe ;  another  a  looking-glass ;  another  some 
cotton  cloth,  with  some  rice  for  their  children.  They  went 
away  very  happy,  saying  the  Father  is  a  good  man.  The 
people  of  the  neighbouring  villages  sometimes  come  to  me 
saying  they  want  to  stay  a  year  and  then  be  baptised.     I 


304         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

promise  them  when  the  chapel  is  built  that  I  will  visit  them, 
teach  them  to  read  and  write,  and  then  get  them  to  teach  the 
catechism  to  others.  They  seemed  very  happy.  As  regards 
the  Arabs,  I  am  afraid  they  will  not  come  to  the  catechism 
so  soon.  They  sometimes  listen  to  it  out  of  curiosity.  They 
appear  to  understand  it,  and  acknowledge  that  it  is  true;  but 
a  virtuous  life  seems  hard  to  them,  and  they  have  no  inclina- 
tion to  it.  Their  Chief  often  inquires  about  the  beginning  of 
the  world,  the  origin  of  the  white  settlements  in  Africa,  the 
story  of  Christ,  etc.  He  works  with  me,  comes  to  see  my  pic- 
tures, and  asks  for  explanations.  Some  of  the  Arabs  want  to 
learn  French.  I  shall  teach  them  some  in  order  to  gain  their 
confidence.  When  the  chapel  is  finished  I  will  see  what  I  can 
do  to  Christianise  the  Arabs,  who  are  about  200,000  strong. 

I  have  had  a  disheartening  experience  at  Yafolo,  where  I 
found  the  community,  which  had  inspired  me  with  so  much 
hope,  had  gone  over  to  the  Dilwa  worship.  This  is  a  form 
of  public  worship  of  the  Dilwa.  It  lasts  for  two  or  three 
months.  During  that  time  all  the  young  men,  from  seven 
to  twenty  years  of  age,  devote  themselves  to  the  Dilwa.  Of 
course  I  denounced  the  falsity  of  that  superstition.  I  went 
into  the  middle  of  the  crowd  with  a  revolver  in  my  pocket, 
because  I  did  not  know  what  they  might  do.  They  were 
sorry  that  I  came,  because  they  thought  I  was  going  to  drop 
dead  as  a  punishment  for  my  temerity.  They  told  me  if  I 
touched  any  of  the  Dilwa  men  my  arm  would  wither  and  fall 
off.  I  touched  some  of  them,  and  of  course  nothing  happened ; 
but  they  kept  on,  and  during  the  three  months  of  the  Dilwa 
work  I  could  not  do  anything  for  them.  I  went  again  a 
month  ago  and  learned  that  about  two-thirds  of  the  cate- 
chumens were  willing  to  return  to  Christianity,  but  their 
parents  would  not  let  them  come,  believing  all  those  who 
have  gone  through  the  Dilwa  to  be  sacred  people  and  to  have 
no  further  need  of  God.  Some  old  people  told  me  that  when 
the  Dilwa  is  over  they  will  all  come  back.    I  wonder  if  they  will ! 

The  same  missionary  records  yet  another  of  his 
experiences,  which  throws  a  vivid  light  upon  the 


Missions  and  Schools  305 

horrid  subject  of  cannibalism.     It  is  dated  February 

7>  1903- 

While  the  Rev.  P.  Kohl  was  staying  with  me,  a  young  chief 
named  Kalonda  visited  us.  He  told  us  that  he  had  said  to 
his  warriors:  "Come,  let  us  visit  our  Father.  He  is  such  a 
good  man  that  he  is  sure  to  give  us  something!"  Speaking 
to  the  Rev.  Kohl,  he  added,  "  He  certainly  is  a  very  good  man. 
He  visits  our  village  and  tells  us  beautiful  things  about  God. 
You  will  see  that  he  loves  us,  because  he  certainly  is  going  to 
give  us  something."  In  the  meantime  he  was  slapping  his 
stomach,  to  show  what  he  expected.  We  could  not  help 
laughing,  but  he  took  no  offence.  Turning  to  his  warriors, 
he  began  again:  "Children,  here  is  the  Good  Father  of  whom 
I  have  so  often  spoken  to  you."  There  I  stopped  him,  say- 
ing: "That  will  do,  Kalonda.  Look  here,  now.  If  you 
answer  my  questions  well,  I  shall  give  you  a  present." 

"To  be  sure.  Father,  I  am  going  to  tell  the  truth." 

"Are  you  a  great  chief?" 

"Yes,  Father." 

"And  you  formerly  used  to  go  to  war  very  often?" 

"Now  listen,  Father!  I  used  to  have  a  great  many  more 
men  than  I  have  now.  They  were  vigorous,  and  understood 
war.  I  went  through  all  the  villages  with  them  as  far  as 
Lindi." 

"Then  you  have  killed  many  people?" 

"To  be  sure." 

"You  have  carried  away  and  eaten  quite  a  number  of 
women  and  children?  Of  course,"  said  I,  immediately,  in 
order  to  prevent  an  explosion  of  wrath  on  his  part,  "you  do 
not  do  so  any  more?" 

"No,"  said  he,  very  deliberately,  "I  do  not  do  so  at  all 
now;  but  formerly  we  ate  a  number  of  men.  We  used  to 
kill  as  many  as  we  wanted  at  the  time  and  take  away  the  rest 
to  fatten.     The  flesh  of  the  women  and  children  is  the  best." 

"How  does  it  taste?"  I  asked  of  the  young  boy  who  was 
standing  near  the  chief  [his  father]. 

He  answered  quite  naturally:   "It  tastes  like  boiled  rice." 


3o6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

It  is  out  of  material  such  as  Kalonda  that  Chris- 
tian missionaries  and  just  laws  carefully  adminis- 
tered are  evolving  a  peaceful,  pastoral  people. 
That  so  large  a  part  of  this  prodigious  task  should 
have  been  achieved  during  the  brief  period  that  the 
Congo  State  has  existed  places  its  triumphant  com- 
pletion in  the  near  future  beyond  all  doubt.  The 
patience,  skill,  and  energy  of  the  men  who  in  cir- 
cumstances so  difficult  have  achieved  so  much,  if 
not  appreciated  at  their  true  worth  now,  will  as- 
suredly be  regarded  by  posterity  as  one  of  the  bright- 
est pages  in  the  history  of  our  time. 

There  are  no  harder  workers  in  the  world  than  the 
Catholic  missionaries  of  the  Congo.  The  following 
passage  from  the  diary  kept  by  the  Rev.  Father 
Grison,  missionary  in  charge  of  St.  Gabriel's,  Stanley 
Falls,  by  no  means  depicts  an  exceptional  experience : 

Oct.  19,  1902. — It  is  Sunday,  9.30  p.m.  I  have  been  busy 
in  the  church  since  6  a.m.  Said  Mass  at  7,  and  preached. 
Had  a  little  coffee  and  wanted  to  retire  to  my  room  for  a  brief 
rest,  when  from  60  to  80  people  called.  They  had  come  from 
Vincent  yesterday  in  order  to  hear  Mass  to-day.  They  com- 
plained that  they  had  not  brought  enough  supplies  and  they 
wanted  me  to  give  them  some  rice;  which,  of  course,  I  did. 
Then  an  important  palaver  turned  up  at  Adela,  and  I  was 
called  upon  to  act  as  interpreter  between  the  natives  and  the 
State.  Then  I  had  to  patch  up  the  quarrels  of  three  or  four 
married  couples  who  had  fallen  out.  Next,  I  had  to  grant 
about  sixty  permits  to  work  on  account  of  its  being  Sunday ; 
and,  finally,  I  found  a  little  time  to  do  my  Breviary.  My 
brother  missionaries  are  in  the  same  fix.  The  Rev.  Father 
Kohl,  who  has  charge  of  the  Sisters'  Convent,  gave  them  a 
lecture,  and  then  had  to  busy  himself  with  the  choir  boys  to 
whom  he  teaches  the  ceremonies.     About  noon  I  received  a 


Missions  and  Schools  307 

visit  from  two  gentlemen  from  Stanley  Falls,  who  are  on  their 
way  towards  the  Great  Lakes  surveying  for  the  railroad. 
Towards  one  o'clock  the  blacks  warned  us  that  the  boat  was 
coming  on,  and  we  knew  that  in  about  an  hour  we  should 
have  news  from  home.  The  steamer  arrived,  bringing  some 
stores,  which  we  hurriedly  landed,  deferring  until  to-morrow 
to  put  them  in  their  proper  places  in  the  storerooms.  After 
that  we  said  the  Rosary  and  gave  Benediction.  Then  came 
the  Catechism  lesson  and  a  Marriage;  then  a  sick  call.  Bre- 
viary again,  and  then  supper.  Such  is  our  Sunday,  supposed 
to  be  a  day  of  rest! 

The  Rev.  Father  Grison  is  typical  of  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries in  Congoland.  Other  missionaries  there 
are,  of  the  Protestant  faith,  equally  sincere  and  ar- 
dent; but  it  is  an  unfortunate  fact  that  among  the 
latter  have  been  included  certain  quasi-political 
agents  who  believe  that  they  find  advantage  in  de- 
preciating the  Government  under  which  they  vol- 
untarily elect  to  live.  Others,  again,  for  the  purpose 
of  increasing  the  zeal  of  the  congregations  of  the 
churches  in  their  fatherland  to  provide  for  them 
sufficient  support,  have  permitted  themselves  to 
excite  the  sympathies  of  the  home  associations  by 
exaggerated  tales  of  oppression  and  cruelty.  Ac- 
quisitiveness is  not  an  unknown  quality  among  mis- 
sionaries. Mr.  Stokes,  the  so-called  martyr,  who 
suffered  for  supplying  arms  in  time  of  war  to  the 
enemies  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  was  originally  a 
Protestant  missionary,  but  he  abandoned  that  voca- 
tion to  become  a  trader. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
STATE  LANDS  AND  CONCESSIONS 

IT  would  seem  reasonable  that  practical  colonial 
government  should  begin  the  pursuit  of  its  ob- 
jects by  a  policy  so  flexible  that  it  might  readily 
conform  to  the  altering  conditions  upon  which  it 
operates.  The  exceptional  nature  of  the 
e  tate  s  ^^^\^  imposed  upon  the  Government  of  the 
Congo  Free  State,  its  varied  and  numerous 
difhctilties,  and  the  uncertainty  of  the  radical  prin- 
ciples imposed  upon  it,  left  its  administrators  no 
choice  of  colonial  precedent  to  follow,  no  govern- 
mental model  to  adopt.  It  stood  alone,  in  a  unique 
enterprise  not  devoid  of  new  hazards,  pitfalls,  and 
strange  teiTors.  It  had  been  regarded  at  first  as  an 
adventure,  then  as  a  serious  experiment.  A  civil 
community  was  to  be  created  of  savage  hordes;  to 
maintain  itself  by  its  own  people  led  on  to  civilisa- 
tion by  a  few  Europeans  with  a  courage  and  zeal  the 
equatorial  sun  should  not  subdue.  The  vast  field 
it  occupied  and  the  untamed  characteristics  of  its 
large  population,  the  early  philanthropic  aims  of  its 
royal  patron,  and  a  general  desire  to  carry  out  the 
principles  enunciated  at  the  Berlin  Conference,  all 
contributed  to  invest  the  Congo  State  Government 
with  a  special  character,  and  to  saddle  it  with 
original  duties  supposedly  beyond  its  powers  to  per- 

308 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  309 

form.  Thus,  in  the  midst  of  an  unexplored  and, 
barbarous  land,  vvith  everything  before  it  unknown, 
with  all  behind  it  seemingly  unsuited  for  employ- 
ment here,  ways  and  means  and  a  state  system  of 
government  had  to  be  adopted  not  only  for  internal 
regulation  and  development,  but  also  to  maintain 
the  integrity  of  its  relations  with  the  rival  Powers 
which  surrounded  it.  The  natural  problems  of  the 
sovereignty  of  an  unknown  land  and  savage  people 
were  difficult  enough;  but  when  these  had  been 
intensified  and  their  practical  solution  hindered  by 
the  fine  theories  and  high  ideals  of  the  Berlin  Con- 
ference, there  appeared  reason  for  the  belief  that 
a  West  African  Don  Quixote  had  been  charged  to 
assault  a  windmill.  Colonial  traditions  appeared 
to  the  men  on  the  spot  to  be  inapplicable  to  the 
Congo.  There  was  no  tax-burdened  home  govern- 
ment to  rely  upon  for  support.  Nor  were  the 
African  forests  or  the  palaces  and  mansions  of 
Europe  crowded  with  philanthropists  desirous  of 
dedicating  their  fortunes  to  the  welfare  of  the  Bantu 
race  in  the  distant  Congo.  In  popular  parlance,  the 
King  and  his  Congo  were  left  to  subsist  on  fine  senti- 
ments and  a  jug  of  water.  If  in  these  circumstances 
a  colonial  policy  of  self-support  was  adopted  and 
carried  out  with  an  economic  skill  which  in  its  re- 
sults excites  foreign  envy  and  covetousness  to-day, 
it  should  not  be  attributed  to  wrong  motive,  but  to 
that  of  stem  necessity.  Concerning  this  formative 
period  of  early  Congolese  policy  the  recent  exposition 
of  Baron  Descamps  may  be  aptly  quoted: 

The  problem  had  to  be  solved  without  bringing  into  conflict 


3IO  Stoiy  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

certain  elements  which  are  difficult  to  assimilate,  namely,  the 
exigencies  of  commercial  freedom  as  recognised  by  the  con- 
ventions, the  civiUsation  of  the  natives  and  their  material 
and  moral  improvement,  the  exigencies  of  the  life  and  pro- 
gress of  the  State  itself  considered  as  the  organic  principle  of 
the  new  political  society,  and  finally  the  exigencies  or  rather 
conditions  relating  to  the  personal  union  of  the  Free  State 
with  Belgium. 

In  the  accomplishment  of  this  complex  task,  the  State  was 
first  inspired  with  the  principle  of  a  scrupulous  respect  for 
international  engagements.  This  principle  was  never  lost 
sight  of,  even  at  the  critical  periods  of  its  life  following  on  the 
Berlin  Conference,  when  a  regime  of  complete  exemption  from 
import  duties  weighed  heavily  upon  its  economic  existence. 

The  State  was  also  filled  with  the  determination  to  faith- 
fully respect  the  declaration  of  permanent  neutrality  which 
it  made  a  short  time  after  the  Berlin  Conference.  As  we  have 
remarked  elsewhere,  this  was  an  honourable  action  towards 
the  Powers  who  were  thus  reassured  concerning  the  policy 
and  pacific  autonomy  of  the  new  State.  It  was  also  an  act 
of  prudence  which  protected  the  Congo  State  from  the  solicit- 
ations of  other  States  interested  in  influencing  its  political 
life.^ 

The  poHcy  of  the  new  State  was  to  be  "fruitful 
activity"  in  peace  and  order  as  soon  as  the  Arab 

wars  had  ceased  and  the  slave  trade  had 
The   tate's  j^ggj^   superseded   by   an   agricultural   and 

industrial  regime.  With  a  neutralised  State 
this  seemed  to  be  a  permanent  function  commend- 
able alike  to  its  people,  its  Government,  and  its 
international  associates  and  sponsors.  Whether  we 
regard  the  moral  concomitant  of  an  era  of  fruitful 
activity  or  only  the  material  essentials  of  a  com- 
munity so  employed,  the  bald  reality  called  for  men 

^Report  to  the  Belgian  Senate,  July  25,  1893. 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  311 

and  money  for  its  accomplishment.  Of  white  men 
there  were  few  in  a  region  where  a  tropical  sun,  and 
other  climatic  disadvantages,  counted  heavily  against 
their  labour.  The  Negro  alone  appeared  to  thrive 
in  conditions  more  suited  to  his  physical  character- 
istics. The  problem  of  creating  a  State  of  the 
Negro  population  involved  social  and  material  ques- 
tions of  vast  import  to  those  who  had  undertaken 
to  develop  and  govern  this  unknown  and  savage 
land.  Should  the  Negro  be  taught  the  nobility  of 
labour — informed  of  the  glorious  edifices  to  civilisa- 
tion it  had  reared  and  what  benefits  its  pursuit  would 
shower  upon  him  if  he  would  but  follow  the  white 
man's  precept  and  example  in  the  sphere  of  honest 
toil? 

The  trade  in  black  men  had  been  suppressed  by 
the  courageous  white  men  of  Belgium.  Trade  in  the 
material  resources  of  the  country  was  now  but  a 
phenomenon  of  the  law  of  self-preservation  and  the 
principle  of  self-support.  It  is  in  the  adoption  of 
practical  measures  to  develop  that  trade  for  the 
greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number  that  the  Bel- 
gians have  shown  an  executive  skill  which  gives  the 
character  of  indolent  farce  to  the  droning  adminis- 
tration of  certain  other  African  colonies,  particu- 
larly British  Lagos,  which  derives  sixty -five  per 
cent,  of  its  supporting  revenue  from  traffic  in  alco- 
holic liquor,^  as  compared  with  five  per  cent,  de- 
rived from  the  same  source  by  the  Congo  Free  State. 

If  the  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State  had  to 
deal  with  a  white  population  capable  of  co-operation 

'  For  statistics  supporting  this  statement,  see  page  287. 


312  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

as  independent  political  units  in  the  State's  develop- 
ment, it  may  easily  be  conceived  that  measures 
perhaps  more  in  consonance  with  certain  European 
theories  might  have  been  devised.  The  candour  of 
this  suggestion  in  no  wise  detracts  from  the  fitness 
and  happy  efficacy  of  the  measures  by  which  the 
Government  of  the  Congo  State  has  achieved  one  of 
the  greatest  colonising  successes  of  modem  times. 

It  is  the  co-operative  principle — so  utterly  lacking 
in  the  uncivilised  native  Congolese — which  often 
inspires  those  governmental  speculations  in  new 
countries  whereby  it  is  sought  to  solve  the  problem 
of  sustaining  the  State  upon  its  own  undeveloped 
resources.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this 
principle,  now  well  recognised  in  the  industrial  world 
and  constantly  adopted  and  expanded  in  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain  by  enlightened  labour 
leaders  and  great  corporations,  unconsciously  in- 
fluenced the  Belgian  statesmen  who  framed  the  land 
and  taxation  laws  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  The 
civilisation  of  Central  Africa  was,  and  forsooth,  still 
is,  an  immense  task,  and  the  State's  early  attitude 
of  welcoming  quasi  private  enterprise  to  co-operate 
with  it  in  the  development  of  lands  which  indolent 
native  races  had  ravaged — first  for  their  own  im- 
mediate wants,  later  at  the  behest  of  adventurers 
and  despoiling  traders,  whose  coin  was  alcohol  and 
shoddy  tinsel — was  not  only  justified  in  a  Govern- 
ment seeking  rational  progress,  but  it  followed  the 
soundest  principles  of  what  the  higher  socialism 
terms  community  of  interest.  If  more  modern  in 
theory,  the  Congo  State  has  in  practice  often  fol- 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  313 

lowed  the  most  experienced  of  old-world  colonisers 
— the  Dutch  and  the  British.  Where  practicable 
under  like  conditions  "it  imitates  these  experienced 
colonisers,  without,  however,  following  them  blindly " 
or  attaining  at  once  what  it  has  taken  them  several 
generations  to  accomplish.  "Neither  does  it  per- 
sist in  methods  which  have  been  recognised  as  er- 
roneous, but  it  alters  and  corrects  them  where 
possible."  Being  like  all  governments,  old  or  new, 
in  savage  lands  or  civilised,  unable  to  reform  its 
domestic  policies  at  command,  it  seeks  the  better- 
ment of  its  system  with  that  gradation  of  movement 
which  shall  not  disorganise  and  disrupt  the  structure 
of  its  statehood.  Those  who  avowedly  speak  for 
the  Congo  Free  State  say  that  "its  policy  is  essen- 
tially a  work  of  methodical  experiment  and  practical 
adaptation.  Even  when  colonial  science  is  more 
advanced  than  it  is  to-day,  that  policy  will  retain  its 
raison  d'etre  and  its  merits." 

Having  considered  those  early  causes  which 
evolved  a  State  land  policy  largely  founded  on  the 
principles  of  co-operation  and  self-support,  it  is 
pertinent,  at  this  point,  to  examine  the  theory  of  the 
State  land  system  which  has  met  with  the  criticism 
of  commercial  interests  in  Great  Britain. 

The  origin  of  the  land  system  of  the  Congo  Free 
State  may  be  said  to  have  assumed  legal  form  by  the 
official  order  of  Sir  Francis  de  Winton,  ^j^g  state's 
who,    it  will   be   recalled,   was   appointed  Land 

Governor-General  of  the  State  when  Henry  System. 
M.  Stanley  returned  to  Europe.  The  order  is  dated 
Vivi,  July  I,  1885. 


SH  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

A  Decree  of  the  Sovereign  will  presently  request  all  non- 
natives  who  now  possess,  by  any  right  whatever,  land  situ- 
ated within  the  territory  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  to  make  an 
official  declaration,  describing  the  land  in  question,  and  sub- 
mitting their  titles  to  be  examined  and  approved  by  the  Gov- 
ernment. The  object  of  the  said  Decree  will  be  to  secure, 
in  the  prescribed  form,  the  acknowledgment  of  acquired 
rights,  and  to  make  the  regular  organisation  of  land  property 
in  the  said  State  possible  in  the  near  future. 

In  the  meantime,  with  a  view  to  avoiding  disputes  and 
abuses,  the  Governor-General,  duly  authorised  by  the  Sover- 
eign, orders  as  follows: 

Article  i.  Dating  from  the  publication  of  the  present 
proclamation,  no  contract  or  agreement  with  the  natives  for 
the  occupation  of  portions  of  the  land  will  be  acknowledged 
or  protected  by  the  Government,  unless  the  said  contract  or 
agreement  has  been  made  in  the  presence  of  a  public  official, 
commissioned  by  the  Governor-General,  and  according  to  the 
rules  laid  down  by  him  in  each  particular  case. 

Article  2.  No  one  has  right  to  occupy  without  title  any 
vacant  land,  nor  to  dispossess  the  natives  from  their  land; 
all  vacant  land  must  be  considered  as  belonging  to  the  State. 

This  order  provided  for  the  official  recognition  of 
title  to  land  appropriated  by  foreigners  before  July 
State  Pro-  ^'  ^^^5 '  ^^^^  occupied  Up  to  the  same  date 
tects  Lands  by  natives,  and  land  which,  having  been 
of  Natives,  j^gi-t^]-^^;^  occupicd  by  natives  nor  appro- 
priated by  foreigners,  was  declared  to  be  the  property 
of  the  State.  Particular  emphasis  was  given  to  the 
clause  protecting  the  native  in  his  occupation  of 
land  whereon  his  industry  had  created  improve- 
ment, where  he  lived  in  the  peaceful  pursuits  com- 
mon to  his  tribe. 

As  the  appropriation  by  the  State  of  vacant  lands 


CIS 

a 

a 
H 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  315 

in  the  Congo  has  inspired  many  of  the  specious 
arguments  which  have  lately  emanated  from  Eng- 
land alone  and  more  particularly  from  the  claque  of 
the  Congo  Reform  Association  in  Liverpool,  it  may 
be  opportune  to  consider  first  what  the  Belgians  have 
said  in  justification  of  a  course  which  every  student 
of  political  history  knows  has  been  followed  by  all 
civilised  States 

In  his  essay,  New  Africa,  Baron  Descamps  briefly 
analyses  the  theory  of  the  State's  unquestionable 
property  in  all  vacant  lands  within  its  territory: 

Territory  is  that  part  of  the  globe  over  which  a  State  exer- 
cises its  sovereign  rights ;  it  is  the  material  basis  of  sovereign 
influence. 

The  mere  fact  of  the  acquisition  of  a  pohtical  sovereignty 
over  a  certain  territory  does  not  in  itself  confer  on  the  Sover- 
eign— at  least  according  to  modem  law — the  ownership  of 
all  property  over  which  private  individuals  have  acquired 
rights.  But  the  recognition  of  these  same  rights,  the  fixing 
of  just  titles  of  acquisition,  the  regulation  of  the  legal  system 
relating  to  property  and  especially  of  the  condition  of  vacant 
land,  all  that  constitutes  an  essential  attribute  of  sovereignty, 
in  conformity  with  the  necessities  of  public  order  and  the 
general  welfare  of  society. 

As  a  sovereign  and  independent  State,  the  Congo  State  has 
been,  and  continues  to  be,  invested  with  that  prerogative. 

In  appropriating  vacant  and  ownerless  land,  the  State  has 
made  lawful  use  of  an  indisputable  and  perfectly  legal  right, 
sanctioned  by  international  custom  and  acknowledged  by  the 
law  of  nations. 

When  regularly  in  possession  of  vacant  land,  is  it  expedient 
for  the  State  to  appropriate  certain  portions  for  public  uses; 
to  transfer  other  portions  gratuitously  or  for  a  consideration, 
with  full  rights  of  ownership  or  with  the  right  of  using  them 
only,   to   private   individuals;    to   preserve  other   parts  for 


3i6         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

revenue  purposes,  by  means  either  of  direct  administration 
or  of  tenure,  with  a  view  to  employing  the  revenue  according 
to  the  needs  or  convenience  of  the  State?  That  is  a  question 
of  internal  administration  which  may  be  discussed  theoretic- 
ally, as  we  have  already  observed,  but  which  must  be  left,  in 
practice,  to  the  sovereign  decision  of  the  State. 

Before  the  Congo  State  was  founded,  a  few 
European  traders  and  missionaries  in  the  Lower 
Early  Congo   Were   occupying   certain   undefined 

European  lands  under  agreements — more  or  less  pre- 
Settiers.  carious  in  term  and  effect— with  native 
chiefs.  These  occupations  partook  largely  of  the 
temporary  nature  of  the  native  occupations  on  the 
banks  of  the  river.  As  these  occupations  ceased 
and  the  land  was  abandoned,  it  reverted  to  the 
State,  precisely  as  it  reverts,  under  certain  con- 
ditions, in  other  States  and  colonies  throughout  the 
world. 

That  the  Congo  State  dealt  equitably  with  for- 
eigners who  had  seriously  squatted  upon  lands  in  the 
basin,  is  plainly  indicated  in  its  next  decree,  dated 
2  2  August,  1885: 

Considering  that  it  is  necessary  to  take  steps  to  recognise 
the  rights  of  non-natives  who  acquired  property  situated  in 
the  Congo  Free  State  before  the  publication  of  the  present 
Decree: 

On  proposal  of  Our  Council  of  General  Administrators, 
We  have  decreed  and  do  decree  as  follows: 

Article  i.  Non-natives  who  have  rights  to  substantiate 
on  land  situated  in  the  Congo  Free  State,  may  have  them 
registered  by  presenting  a  request  for  registration  in  the  form 
prescribed  by  the  following  regulations: 

This  request  must  be  presented  in  duplicate,  before  April 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  317 

1,  1886,  to  the  public  officer,  who  will  have  to  record  the 
deeds  of  land. 

Our  Governor-General  has  the  power  to  authorise  the  ad- 
mission, after  this  date,  of  demands  for  registration,  which 
for  some  exceptional  reason  could  not  be  presented  within 
the  prescribed  time. 

Article  8.  The  manner  in  which  requests  for  registration 
will  be  controlled  shall  be  settled  by  Our  Governor-General. 

When  a  non-native  shall  have  duly  proved  his  rights  over 
a  portion  of  land,  the  Recorder  of  Deeds  shall  give  him 
a  registration  certificate  which  shall  constitute  a  legal  title 
of  occupation  until  such  time  as  the  land  system  has  been 
definitely  settled  in  the  Congo  Free  State. 

Under  this  decree,  practically  every  land  claim 
presented  was  admitted  by  the  Government.  Fur- 
ther decrees  provided  for  the  compulsory  measure- 
ment of  land  held  by  private  owners;  the  Torrens 
Act  system  of  transferring  the  title  to  land  was 
adopted;  rules  of  survey  and  its  certification  were 
prescribed;  deeds  were  registered  at  the  office  of  a 
Registrar,  and  generally  the  complete  and  practical 
machinery  of  an  efficient  Land  Department  was 
established  for  the  benefit  of  natives  and  foreigners 
alike.  As  the  State  progressed  in  its  organisation 
it  defined  its  earlier  improvisations  with  greater  pre- 
cision, provided  laws  in  regulation  of  native  "occu- 
pations," private  lands  and  the  lands  of  the  State. 
Its  respect  for  the  equities  in  property  of  those  who 
had  hazarded  life  in  that  wild  region  extended  also 
to  a  scrupulous  care  for  the  native  whose  lands  it 
guarded  from  invasion  and  trespass.  By  decree 
dated  September  14,  1886,  the  State  provided  that 


3i8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

"Lands  occupied  by  native  populations  under  the 
authority  of  their  chiefs  shall  continue  to  be  governed 
by  local  customs  and  uses,"  thus  insuring  aboriginal 
tranquillity  in  the  presence  of  a  scheme  of  civilisation 
which  the  administrators  of  the  State  wisely  re- 
frained from  imposing  with  disturbing  rigour.  The 
savage  black  man  at  first  instinctively  shrinks  from 
the  civilised  white,  and  the  Belgians,  with  knowledge 
of  this  almost  universal  timidity  of  the  African  races, 
offered  him  a  mild  measure  of  civilising  rule  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  bluff  and  peremptory  subjuga- 
tion which  has  always  characterised  the  decimating 
colonial  methods  of  its  burly  neighbour  in  the 
Uganda  and  Soudan  countries.  By  the  same  decree 
the  Government  of  the  Congo  State  provided  that: 

All  acts  or  agreements  which  might  tend  to  expel  the 
natives  from  the  territories  occupied  by  them  or  to  deprive 
them  directly  or  indirectly  of  their  freedom  or  means  of  sub- 
sistence, are  forbidden. 

Where  natives  occupy,  or  have  moved  upon,  lands 
which  it  is  sought  to  lease  from  the  State,  provision 
has  been  made  by  the  decree  of  April  9,  1893,  that: 

When  native  villages  are  enclosed  in  the  land  acquired  or 
let,  the  natives  may,  as  long  as  the  official  measurements 
have  not  been  made,  carry  on  agricultural  pursuits  without 
the  consent  of  landlord  or  tenant,  on  the  vacant  lands  sur- 
rounding their  villages. 

All  disputes  which  may  arise  in  the  matter  between  the 
natives  and  the  grantee  or  tenant,  shall  be  finally  settled  by 
the  Governor-General  or  his  delegate. 

A  decree  of  February  2,  1898,  appointed  a  Land 
Commission   charged   to   consider   whether   certain 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  319 

lands,  as  to  which  claims  may  have  been  made, 
' '  shall  be  reserved  either  on  grounds  of  public  utility 
or  with  a  view  of  promoting  their  cultivation  by  the 
natives."  Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the 
bounty  paid  by  the  State  to  natives  who  cultivate 
coffee  and  cocoa  plants.  Even  in  the  mining  laws 
of  the  Congo  the  State  has  continued  its  solicitude 
for  the  native  and  decreed  that  he  shall  not  be  dis- 
turbed in  the  pursuit  of  those  rude  industries  which 
tend  to  elevate  his  moral  nature  and  provide  him 
with  means  of  self-support.  By  a  decree  dated  June 
8,  1888,  the  native  is  exempted  from  the  prohibition, 
under  a  previous  decree  (July  i,  1885),  ^^  working  a 
mine  without  a  concession  from  the  State.  Under 
this  exemption  natives  are  expressly  authorized  to 
"continue  to  work  mines  for  their  own  account  on 
lands  occupied  by  them."  Indeed  in  all  cases  where 
local  tribal  customs  do  not  directly  conflict  with 
civilising  tendencies,  the  rule  of  the  State  has  been 
to  observe  them  in  all  their  integrity.  To  facilitate 
this  policy  in  its  intercourse  with  natives,  the  State 
has  dealt  with  the  aboriginal  population  largely 
through  the  chiefs  of  the  native  tribes.  This  means 
of  linking  the  black  man  to  the  State  which  is  striving 
to  civilise  him  by  the  gradual  substitution  of  the 
white  man's  methods  for  those  of  the  savage,  has 
been  attended  with  much  success  and  inspired  con- 
fidence where  instinctive  distrust  might  have  long 
prevailed  Amongst  the  local  customs  which  are 
safeguarded  by  the  State  are  what  are  known  as 
coutumes  de  rations,  a  form  of  royalty  to  which  the 
natives  are  entitled  on  the  produce  of  certain  land. 


320  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

So  far  has  the  State  concerned  itself  in  perpetuating 
this  form  of  support  to  the  tribes  where  the  custom 
prevails  that,  by  an  order  of  the  Governor-General 
dated  November  8,  1886,  it  has  provided  that: 

The  issue  of  registration  certificates  does  not  exempt  the 
interested  parties  from  observing,  in  their  deaHngs  with  the 
natives,  existing  local  customs,  especially  those  relative  to 
royalties  known  as  coutumes  de  rations,  although  these  royal- 
ties may  not  be  mentioned  in  the  certificates,  among  the 
encumbrances  affecting  the  property. 

If,  in  consequence  of  the  non-payment  of  the  rations  or 
coutumes,  usual  in  such  cases,  disputes  occur  between  the 
landed  proprietor  and  the  natives,  the  certificate  of  registra- 
tion may  be  cancelled  by  the  Courts  on  the  application  of  the 
curator  of  land  titles. 

From  the  foregoing  and  many  similar  decrees  in- 
tended to  secure  the  property  and  other  rights  of  the 
natives,  it  will  be  observed  that  the  administrators 
of  the  State  consistently  undertook  to  carry  out  all 
that  was  implied  in  King  Leopold's  early  declaration 
of  his  aims  in  Central  Africa.  If  in  the  execution 
of  the  Congo  State  laws  there  has  sometimes  been 
laxity,  error,  and  perhaps  individual  cases  of  per- 
version, the  fact  remains  that  the  law  is  sound  and 
the  land  system  in  respect  of  native  possessions  an 
equitable  scheme  devised  in  the  interest  of  their 
general  welfare  and  protection.  The  administration 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  should  be  judged  with  due 
regard  to  the  nature  of  its  savage  population,  its 
unexplored  territory  of  a  million  square  miles,  its 
early  lack  of  organised  governmental  forces,  the 
necessary  newness  and  the  rudeness  of  its  civil  in- 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  321 

stitutions,  and  the  thousand  and  one  uncatalogued 
difficulties  which  must  have  beset  such  ambitious 
pioneers  as  that  Httle  band  of  Belgians  which  dared 
venture  into  an  abyss  from  the  safe  walls  of  which 
Europe  smiled  derisively  and  shouted  orders  to  the 
men  below. 

Having  provided  laws  securing  to  natives  the  lands 
occupied  by  them,  and  regulated  the  land  titles  of 
foreigners,  the  State  declared  as  its  own  g^^^g  claims 
all  unoccupied  lands  not  subject  to  the  Vacant 
ownership  of  the  native  or  the  foreigner.  ^°  ^' 

This  governmental  possession  of  unoccupied  territory 
is  not  only  sanctioned  by  the  most  enlightened  laws 
of  the  age,  it  is  the  express  duty  of  a  State  to  bring 
under  its  care  all  territory  which,  if  abandoned, 
might  become  the  object  of  dispute,  internecine 
strife,  and  sanguinary  warfare.  The  very  element 
of,  and  respect  for,  ownership  of  lands,  chattels,  or 
other  objects  of  material  value,  preserves  that  order 
which  all  law  seeks  to  enforce,  for  which  civil  so- 
ciety is  organised  on  foundations  of  equity  and  just- 
ice. Was  it  not  the  very  principle  which  actuated 
the  Berlin  Conference  when,  in  order  to  remove  the 
Congo  Free  State  from  the  covetous  rivalry  of  the 
Powers — their  disputes  and  possible  wars — it  recog- 
nised the  occupants  of  the  Congo  Basin  and  neu- 
tralised the  Congo  State?  If,  during  the  twenty 
years  that  have  elapsed  since  the  Berlin  Conference 
settled  the  matter,  the  Congo  Free  State  had  re- 
mained in  the  position  of  territory  open  to  the  pre- 
emption, adverse  possession,  invasion,  and  trespass 
of  anybody,  the  savage  European  war  of  words,  of 


322  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

diplomatic  missiles,  or  perhaps  of  actual  arms, 
would  have  been  a  deadly  substitute  for  the  native 
savagery  of  the  African  black.  Civilisation  with- 
out property  vested  in  the  State  or  its  citizens  is 
inconceivable. 

The  categories  into  which  the  lands  within  the 
borders  of  the  Congo  Free  State  naturally  fall  have 
Various  already  been  briefly  indicated  in  a  previous 
Tenures  chapter.  The  land  system  includes,  first, 
°  ^°  •  a  reservation  of  land  exclusively  for  the 
use  of  the  public.  Second,  lands  sold  upon  an 
official  scale  of  prices  through  a  Land  Department 
composed  of  five  members.  Third,  concessions  of 
land  granted  for  a  certain  term  of  years,  or  as  free- 
hold, to  companies  organised  to  develop  its  pro- 
ductivity. Fourth,  grants  of  use  extended  to  those 
who,  by  arrangement  with  the  State,  thereby  obtain 
the  right  to  work  a  prescribed  area  for  india-rubber. 
Certain  zones  of  rubber-bearing  territory  are  not 
subject  to  grants  of  use,  the  State  reserving  therein 
the  exclusive  right  to  work  the  forests,  thereby 
following  the  system  in  force  in  the  Soudan  and 
in  other  neighbouring  colonies.  Finally,  there  are 
leases  of  three,  six,  or  nine  years,  of  land  for  com- 
mercial purposes,  and  leases  for  twenty  to  fifty 
years  of  lands  for  agricultural  uses  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  missions,  schools,  and  churches.  The 
latter  possess  areas  aggregating  about  six  thousand 
acres. 

The  principal  concessionary  companies,  operate 
over  approximately  one-fourth  of  the  State.  The 
lands  conceded  to  such  companies  are  transmitted 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  323 

under  contracts  very  similar  to  those  employed  in  the 
Soudan,'  and  provide  for  the  improvement  of  the 
land  b}^  the  erection  of  buildings,  planting  rubber 
vines,  coffee,  cocoa,  breeding  cattle,  and  collecting 
rubber  in  a  manner  which  will  not  deplete  the  grow- 
ing stock.  The  Congo  State  law  imposes  upon  the 
rubber  companies  the  duty  of  planting  at  least  five 
hundred  feet  of  rubber  vines  or  trees  for  every  ton 
of  rubber  harvested.  The  forests  are  safeguarded  in 
respect  of  wood  and  other  products,  and  special  in- 
spectors see  to  the  rigorous  enforcement  of  the  law. 
There  appears  to  be  a  different  state  of  things  in 
the  rubber-bearing  districts  of  British  Lagos,  where 
reckless  destruction  of  the  vines,  waste,  inattention, 
and  lack  of  intelligent  organisation  have  reduced 
the  rubber  yield  in  1900  to  one-tenth  its  harvest  in 
1896,  with  the  decline  still  continuing.  The  same 
measure  of  rapid  decline  is  going  on  in  the  Gold 
Coast  and  Sierra  Leone.  "The  decrease  in  the  ex- 
port of  rubber  from  £347,721  in  1896  to  ;^i6o,3i5 
in  1899  is  clearly  due  to  the  reckless  and  unskilful 
manner  in  which  rubber  was  collected  "  ^ 

This  report  is  corroborated  by  the  statistics  of  the 
British  Gold  Coast,  which  in  1899  exported  rubber 
to  the  value  of  £sSS^73'^^  but  in  1902  to  the  value  of 
only  ;;{^88,6o2;  Lagos,  1896,  £347,721,  in  1901, 
£14,749;  Sierra  Leone,  1895,  ;£86,94o,  in  1902, 
£8,192.  Indeed,  the  table  from  which  these  quota- 
tions are  made  shows  that  the  rubber  exports  from 

'  Sale  of  Government  Land  in  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Soudan,  Times 
(London),  July  i8.  1904. 

'Annual  Colonial  Report,  Lagos,  1899. 


324  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

eight  British  colonies  have  greatly  decreased  since 
1898,  desx)ite  the  increased  European  value  of  that 
product.  It  would  seem  that  the  care  and  skill 
which  during  these  same  years  caused  the  Congo 
exports  to  rise  from  less  than  a  million  francs  in  1 886 
to  over  fifty -four  millions  in  1 903  were  at  least  worth 
the  emulation  of  the  Gold  Coast,  Lagos,  and  Sierra 
Leone  muddlers  hiding  defeat  behind  the  humani- 
tarian pretexts  of  Liverpool  rubber  merchants  and 
their  agents,  whose  conscience  is  as  flexible  as  their 
trade  product. 

Concerning  the  concessionary  scheme  which  pre- 
vails in  the  French  Congo,  and  which  the  Congo 
Free  State  Government  has  so  successfully  carried 
out  in  its  own  territory,  M.  Eugene  Etienne,  a  dis- 
tinguished French  scholar,  Vice-President  of  the 
French  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  leader  of  the 
French  colonial  group,  has  said  and  written  some 
pertinent  things.  The  French  Congo,  lying  on  the 
coast  west  of  the  Free  State,  has  been  also  assailed 
by  the  few  interested  British  merchants  and  their 
religious  and  secular  agents  and  reform  associations 
for  having  been  forbidden  to  trespass  upon  and  de- 
spoil Central  African  territory  which  has  so  far 
escaped  the  acquisitive  proclivities  of  John  Bull. 
M.  Etienne's  dissertation  contains  the  following 
passages  as  applicable  to  the  Free  State  as  to  the 
French  Congo : 

1  stop  in  the  enumeration  of  the  results  obtained  by  the 
Independent  State  of  the  Congo,  and  I  will  not  put  in  the  op- 
posite column  the  balance  sheet  which  gives  little  enough  to 
rejoice  over   of  the    progress   realised  in    the  neighbouring 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  325 

French  colony.  Certainly  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  country,  and  the  management  of  the  na- 
tives, our  officials  have  obtained  what  might  be  French  and 
called,  in  a  formula  borrowed  from  mechanics,  Belgian 
the  maximum  of  result  with  the  minimum  of  Systems 
expense.     .     .     .  Compared. 

The  constitution  of  landed  property  in  the  Congo,  regu- 
lated by  the  decree  of  28th  March,  1899,  and  the  attribution 
of  vacant  lands  by  important  lots  to  companies  bound  by  a 
cahier  des  charges,  form  a  work  carefully  thought  out  and 
elaborated  on  the  advice  of  eminent  jurists.  It  does  honour 
to  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies  who  took  the  initiative  in  the 
matter,  my  eminent  colleague  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
M.  Guillain,  as  well  as  to  the  Councillor  of  State,  M.  Cotelle, 
who  gave  his  active  collaboration  as  President  of  the  Com- 
mission of  Concessions. 

The  justification  of  the  large  concessions  is  to  substitute 

a  regular  and  methodical  exploitation  of  the  products  of  the 

soil  for  the  svstem  of  trading  which  destroys  the 

Ooti  cessions 
natural  riches,  leaving  behind  it  only  the  exhausted       ,    ^.^   , 
'  °  -'  Justinea. 

and  mutilated  bush.  Is  it  a  question  of  the 
collection  of  caoutchouc  [rubber], — the  native  cuts  the  lianas, 
bleeds  the  producing  shrub  to  complete  exhaustion.  Is  it 
a  question  of  ivory, — the  precious  product  disappears  rapidly 
with  the  increase  of  the  price,  and  the  easier  destruction  of 
the  elephants  by  means  of  arms  of  precision.  Left  to  him- 
self the  native  destroys,  and  does  not  concern  himself  to  ask 
the  earth  to  restore  what  he  has  taken  from  it.  At  the  most 
he  scratches  a  little  of  the  soil  round  the  villages  he  inhabits 
in  order  to  carry  out  thereon  some  cultivation  of  food  stuflfs. 
Thus  has  it  already  been  recorded  in  our  Congo  colony  that 
the  caoutchouc  lianas  have  nearly  disappeared  from  the 
coast,  and  from  the  banks  of  the  rivers.  It  would  be  the 
same  in  the  end  in  the  regions  further  removed  from  the  sea, 
if  wise  regulations  did  not  put  a  stop  to  it. 

Quite  different  would  be  the  value  of  the  soil  if  new  planta- 
tions replaced  those  exhausted  by  successive  harvests,  and 
added  new  products  to  those  which  come  without  cultivation. 


326         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Coffee  trees  and  cocoa  trees  succeed  admirably  on  the  Congo. 
The  soil  lends  itself  to  all  tropical  cultivations.  As  to  the 
collection  of  caoutchouc,  which  will  long  remain  one  of  the 
principal  resources  of  the  country,  it  demands  management 
and  care.  It  is  for  this  motive  that,  according  to  one  of  the 
clauses  of  the  cahier  des  charges  annexed  to  the  decrees  of 
concession,  the  concessionaire  companies  are  bound  "to 
plant  and  to  maintain  to  the  termination  of  the  concession,  by 
replacing  those  which  shall  have  disappeared,  at  least  500 
feet  of  caoutchouc  plants  per  ton  of  caoutchouc  produced." 

The  contract  signed  between  the  State  as  the  proprietor  of 
vacant  lands  and  the  concessionaire  is  the  following:  The 
concessionaire  is  authorised  to  establish  himself  on  the  lands 
assigned  to  him,  he  exercises  there  for  a  period  of  30  years 
all  rights  of  possession  and  exploitation  (under  reservation 
of  lands  allotted  to  the  natives,  and  of  rights  of  proprietorship 
previously  acquired  by  third  parties) ;  but  this  lease  of  30 
years  is  to  be  changed  into  definite  proprietorship  for  all  lands 
which  shall  have  been  improved.  How  is  it  to  be  decided 
whether  the  lands  may  be  considered  as  improved?  The 
cahier  des  charges  answers  this  question  with  precision.  Shall 
be  considered  as  improved: 

1.  Lands  occupied  over  at  least  one-tenth  of  their  surface 
b}^  buildings ; 

2.  Lands  planted  over  at  least  one-twentieth  of  their  sur- 
face with  rich  cultivation  such  as  cocoa,  coffee,  caoutchouc, 
vanilla,  indigo,  tobacco,  etc.; 

3.  Lands  cultivated  over  at  least  one-tenth  of  their  surface 
with  food  cultivation  such  as  rice,  millet,  manioc,  etc.; 

4.  The  pasturage  on  which  shall  be  maintained  during  at 
least  five  years  beasts  for  breeding  and  fattening  at  the  rate 
of  two  heads  of  large  beasts  or  four  heads  of  small  beasts  per 
10  hectares  ' ; 

5.  The  parts  of  forests  of  a  superficies  of  at  least  100  hec- 
tares of  a  single  tenancy  in  which  caoutchouc  shall  have  been 
regularly  collected  for  at  least  five  years  at  the  rate  of  at 
least  20  feet  of  trees  or  lianas  as  the  average  per  hectare.  .  .   , 

'Approximately  twenty-four  and  one-half  acres. 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  327 

In  exchange  for  these  advantages  the  concessionaire  as- 
sumes charges  which  are  not  defined  with  less  rigour :  Fixed 
annual  rents  to  be  paid  to  the  colony,  share  of  the  profits,  15 
per  cent,  of  the  company's  receipts  going  to  the  local  budget, 
obligation  to  float  on  the  watercourses  traversing  the  con- 
cession steamboats  of  a  fixed  model,  all  without  prejudice  to 
the  payment  of  a  security. 

The  British  merchants  ^  complained  of  being  deprived  of 
the  rights  which  they  had  exercised  during  many  3^ears  of 
sending  their  contractors  to  collect  the  caoutchouc  on  the 
lands  conceded  to  the  new  companies,  a  dispossession  for 
which  they  demanded  reparation.  The  Court,  after  having 
ascertained  that  the  English  firms  did  not  claim  any  per- 
manent establishment  on  the  domain  conceded,  non-suited 
them,  objecting  with  reason  that  the  State  as  proprietor  of 
free  lands  in  the  Congo  had  the  right  to  dispose  of  them,  and 
that  the  long  tolerance  which  the  merchants  had  enjoyed  for 
the  collection  of  the  products  of  the  soil  could  not  constitute 
an  acquired  right  in  their  favour.  Beaten  in  the  French 
courts,  the  Liverpool  firms  lodged  an  appeal  before  a  tribunal 
where  they  were  certain  of  being  heard.  They  set  in  movement 
the  English  Chambers  of  Commerce,  interested  the  press  and 
public  opinion  in  their  cause,  and  made  the  British  Foreign 
Office  intervene. 

I  have  always  admired  the  ardour  and  solicitude  with  which 
British  diplomacy  takes  part  and  cause  for  the  grievances  of 
British  subjects  abroad.  The  British  citizen,  as  formerly  the 
Roman,  is  assured  of  being  protected  and  defended.  I  know 
citizens  of  other  countries  who  cannot  always  say  as  much. 
The  complaints  of  the  Liverpool  merchants  furnished  in  their 
way  a  fine  platform  for  diplomacy.  The  Congo  with  the 
guarantees  stipulated  by  the  Berlin  Conference,  should  it  not 
be  the  chosen  land,  the  last  refuge  of  commercial  freedom? 
To  the  complaints  of  merchants  established  in  the  French 

'  Two  Liverpool  firms,  Messrs.  Hatton  &  Cookson  and  John  Holt  & 
Co.,  have  alone  figured  in  the  cases  brought  before  the  Courts  of 
Libreville. 


328  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

colony  were  added  those  of  the  English  merchants  and  consuls 
resident  in  the  Belgian  Congo.  It  was  the  placing  on  trial  of 
the  Independent  State  in  its  entirety — of  its  commercial 
policy,  of  its  native  policy,  which  formed  the  subject  of  in- 
quiry in  the  press  and  before  the  British  Parliament.     .     .     . 

Now  in  no  country  of  the  world  has  freedom  of  commerce 
been  considered  as  interfering  with  the  rights  of  property. 
The  proprietor  of  the  soil  alone  has  the  right  to  dispose  of  the 
products  of  the  land  which  belongs  to  him.  Do  people  in 
England  think  that  freedom  of  commerce  is  violated  because 
the  first  passer-by  of  a  rich  and  extensive  manorial  domain 
cannot  take  the  fruits  and  vegetables,  kill  the  bucks  and  the 
hinds,  and  lay  the  axe  to  the  trees?  Why  should  it  be  other- 
wise on  the  Congo?  The  whole  question  is,  whether  the 
State,  which  in  the  French  Congo  (as  in  the  Independent 
State)  has  proclaimed  itself  the  proprietor  of  vacant  and 
unowned  lands,  has  this  right  legitimately.  If  it  has,  it  can 
in  one  form  or  another  alienate  the  lands  belonging  to  it. 
That  this  exercise  of  the  law  of  property  may  inconvenience 
those  who  formerly  enjoyed  the  products  of  the  soil,  I  do  not 
deny.  There  are  countries  where  hunting  is  not  forbidden,  and 
the  ga'ine  belongs  to  the  killer.  A  day  arrives  when  the  pro- 
prietor reserves  his  rights.  He  forbids  hunting,  he  institutes 
suits.  It  is  very  disagreeable  for  those  who  used  to  traverse  his 
land  freely.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  they  have  the  right  to  an 
indemnity.  Still  that  is  the  strange  suit  that  England  wishes  to 
bring  before  the  European  Areopagus.  The  Congo  has  pro- 
tected its  hunting  grounds;  the  poachers  exclaim  against  the 
injustice  and  claim  damages  !  ' 

Has  the  State  been  right  in  considering  itself  the  legitimate 

proprietor  of  vacant  and  unowned  lands  in  the  Congo?     If 

any  doubt  existed  on  the  subject,  the  luminous 

British  opinion    given   to   our   concessionaires   by    Maitre 

Concessions --i^       •  t-.     i  i       u       ^       ^  -^        a  r^ 

in  Canada     Henri  Barboux  should  suince  to  remove  it.     After 

having  recalled  that  in  all  countries,  at  all  periods, 

the  exercise  of  the  right  of  sovereignty  implied  the  appro- 

^  Italics  by  the  author. 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  329 

priation  for  the  profit  of  the  State  of  conquered  lands,  the 
eminent  advocate  shows  how  England  has  made  use  of  that 
prerogative;  in  Lower  Canada  where  a  single  Governor 
granted  1,425,000  acres  to  sixty  persons;  in  Upper  Canada 
where  in  1825  out  of  17,000,000  measured  acres,  an  extent 
almost  equal  to  Ireland,  15,000,000  had  been  given  in  con- 
cession; in  Australia  where  the  distribution  of  lands  to 
colonists  in  gratuitous  concessions  or  by  sale  was  never  con- 
sidered "as  in  contempt  of  the  rights  of  the  primitive  inhab- 
itants of  the  country,  nor  as  contrary  to  the  largest  principles 
of  commercial  freedom."  In  India,  Ceylon,  at  Hong-Kong, 
in  Africa  (Cape  Colony,  Natal,  Bechuanaland),  in  the  Fiji 
Islands,  Great  Britain  has  always  admitted  that  "the  whole 
country  falls  to  the  Crown,  and  that  the  Crown  Crown 

can  attribute  to  individuals  portions  of  the  country.  Lands  in 
while  reserving  as  its  own  domain  all  which  is  not  British 

given  in  concession  "  (Creasy,  TJie  Imperial  and  Colonies. 
Colonial  Constitutions  of  the  Britannic  Ernpire,  p.  66).  Hol- 
land applies  the  same  rules.  In  Germany  the  Imperial 
ordinance  of  26th  November,  1895,  ordains  in  these  terms: 
"  Under  reserve  of  the  rights  of  property  or  other  real  rights 
that  individuals  or  juridical  persons,  native  chiefs  or  com- 
munities, can  invoke,  as  well  as  of  the  rights  of  occupation  of 
third  persons  resulting  from  contracts  passed  with  the  Im- 
perial Government,  all  the  land  of  German  East  Africa  is 
vacant  land  of  the  Croum.  The  proprietorship  of  it  belongs  to 
the  Empire.'' 

These  very  same  principles  have  been  applied  by  the 
European  nations  which  have  shared  amongst  themselves 
the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo.  The  reservation  of  the 
rights  acquired  by  third  persons,  the  reservation  of  the  rights 
of  natives  are  stipulated  for  in  our  contracts  of  concession 
with  a  precision  which  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  "The 
society  having  the  concession  cannot  exercise  the  rights  of 
enjoyment  and  exploitation  which  are  accorded  to  it  except 
outside  villages  occupied  by  natives,  and  the  lands  reserved 
to  them  for  purposes  of  cultivation,  pasturage,  or  as  forest. 
The  perimeters  of  these  lands  if  it  is  a  question  of  natives 


330         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

with  a  fixed  residence,  or  the  successive  perimeters  to  be 
occupied  or  reserved  if  it  is  one  of  natives  with  a  changeable 
residence,  shall  be  fixed  by  the  decisions  of  the  Governor  of 
the  Colony,  who  shall  equally  determine  the  lands  over  which 
the  natives  shall  preserve  the  rights  of  hunting  and  fishing. 
The  lands  and  rights  thus  reserved  shall  not  be  ceded  by  the 
natives  either  to  the  concessionaire  or  to  third  pp.rties  except 
with  the  authority  of  the  Governor  of  the  Colony."  (Art. 
lo  of  the  decree  of  28th  March,  1879,  on  concessions.)  These 
stipulations  are  the  most  liberal  that  could  be  carried  out  in  a 
country  where  native  proprietorship  is  not  regularly  con- 
stituted, where  the  land  surrounding  the  villages  is  alone 
cultivated,  where  the  villages  are  shifted  about  with  extreme 
ease,  what  was  field  or  plantation  one  year  returning  to  the 
state  of  the  bush  in  the  following.  As  to  lands  really  oc- 
cupied by  Europeans,  they  have  always  been  left  outside  the  new 
concessions.  What  it  has  not  been  thought  proper  to  respect  is 
the  pretension  which  some  traders  have  put  forward  of  being 
masters  of  what  tlwy  never  possessed,  of  trading  in  what  did  not 
belong  to  them. 

Up  to  the  present  I  have  spoken  only  of  the  concessions 
given  on  French  territory.  The  Independent  State  has  em- 
ployed the  same  system.  In  a  part  of  its  territoiy  it  even 
inaugurated  it.  All  that  may  be  said  to  defend  our  admin- 
istration from  having  violated  on  the  Congo  the  principle 
of  commercial  liberty  is,  then,  applicable  to  the  Belgian 
concessions. 

The  Private  Domain  {Domaine  Prive)  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  embraces  approximately  one-fourth  of 

the  unoccupied  lands  within  its  borders. 
of"TraderT  '^^^  ^^  ^^^  feature  of  the  State's  general 

scheme  of  physical  development  which  ex- 
cites its  enemies  to  make  many  foolhardy  assaults 
and  become  voluble  with  fallacy  and  hollow  argu- 
ment.    It  was  created  by  a  decree  dated  December 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  331 

5,  1892.  All  the  net  revenue  derived  from  the 
Private  Domain  is  placed  in  the  State's  treasury  and 
applied  to  the  payment  of  the  cost  of  its  public  im- 
provements and  all  its  undertakings  seeking  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  native  population,  the 
facilities  for  their  civilisation  and  the  elevation  of 
their  moral  nature. 

The  revenue  from  the  Private  Domain  is  derived 
from  the  State's  direct  exploitation  of  its  lands. 
Rubber  and  ivory  are  its  chief  products  at  the  present 
time.  Various  kinds  of  wood  abound  in  its  forests, 
and  cocoa  and  coffee  plantations,  experimental 
farms,  live-stock  ranches,  agricultural  areas,  all  are 
being  developed  under  the  direct  supervision  of 
State  agents. 

The  question  which  is  periodically  enlivened  con- 
cerning this  governmental  scheme  for  acquiring 
necessary  revenue  is:  Can  the  State,  in  occupation 
of  its  own  lands  in  the  Congo  Basin,  develop  the  land 
by  direct  cultivation,  or  en  regie  (by  trustees),  for 
the  benefit  of  the  State  budget, which,  in  its  integrity, 
is  devoted  to  increase  the  power  of  the  State  to 
civilise  and  elevate  its  native  people?  There  can 
be  no  doubt  about  the  State's  right  to  develop  terri- 
tory which  for  lack  of  private  initiative  and  capital 
would  produce  nothing  for  the  benefit  of  the  society 
for  which  the  State  has  been  created.  This  right  has 
been  recognised  not  only  by  the  Powers  at  the  Berlin 
Conference  in  reference  to  Central  Africa,  but,  in 
varying  aspects,  by  all  civilised  countries  in  refer- 
ence to  other  parts  of  the  globe.  Belgian,  French, 
English,   Russian,  Swiss,  and    Italian    jurists   have 


332  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

considered  this  question  at  great  length.  The  opin- 
ions of  Messrs.  Van  Berchem,  Van  Maldeghem,  de 
Paepe,  John  Westlake,  K.C.,  Sir  Horace  Davey,  K.C., 
de  Martens,  Barboux,  Nys,  Pierantoni,  and  Azcarate, 
besides  the  weight  of  opinion  expressed  by  United 
States  authorities  which  have  been  consulted,  all 
concede  the  State's  right  to  develop  its  territory  for 
the  benefit  of  a  treasury  devoted  to  the  welfare  of 
its  people.  Moreover,  this  scheme  of  self-develop- 
ment is  not  peculiar  to  the  Free  State.  France, 
Germany,  Great  Britain,  and  Portugal  declared  un- 
occupied land  to  be  the  property  of  the  State.  The 
establishment  of  that  principle  at  once  implies  the 
adoption  of  that  other  by  which  the  State  may  im- 
prove its  own  property  and  turn  it  from  a  wilder- 
ness into  a  productive  garden.  In  addition  to 
innumerable  earlier  decrees  by  the  Governments 
surrounding  the  Congo  Free  State,  many  of  which 
are  set  out  in  the  Bulletin  Ofpciel  of  the  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo  for  June,  1903,  new  ordinances, 
amplifying  and  extending  the  early  decrees,  have 
been  recently  (September  20  and  October  23,  1904) 
put  into  operation.  Their  inclusion  herein  would 
unduly  extend  the  text  of  this  volume.  A  brief  in- 
dication of  their  provisions  will  be  found  in  the 
Appendix  under  the  title:  Features  of  the  Land  Sys- 
tem in  the  African  Colonies  of  Germany,  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Portugal.'' 

From  the  Neue  Hamburgische  B  or  sen  Halle,  20 
October,  1904,  we  quote  the  following  comment  upon 
the  German  decree  of  the  same  date,  inasmuch  as  it 

'See  Appendix. 


-    State  Lands  and  Concessions  333 

reveals  what,  in  general,  is  the  European  opinion  of 
the  British  criticism  of  the  Congo  State  land  system : 

The  decree  brings  under  the  designation  of  forest  products 
the  products  from  all  woodlands,  whether  fenced  in  or  not, 
and  even  from  isolated  plantations,  from  bush  and  under- 
brush, bamboo  and  elm  trees,  and  from  all  liquaceous  plants, 
especially  the  lumber,  the  bark,  the  sap,  the  rubber,  the 
leaves,  the  flowers,  and  the  fruit.  In  such  part  of  the  terri- 
tories as  have,  after  eflfective  occupation,  been  declared 
forest  reservations  by  a  public  notice  of  the  government,  it 
is  strictly  forbidden  to  gather  any  kind  of  forest  products,  for 
such  harvesting  is  made  an  exclusive  right  of  the  Treasury. 

That  decree  is  interesting  in  many  ways.  First,  it  shows 
that  the  German  Colonial  Office  has  decided  to  systematically 
protect  the  forest  domain  of  the  Colony  in  order  to  prevent 
indiscriminate  deforestation,  which  would  rapidly  bring  dis- 
aster upon  the  country.  But  it  also  reminds  one  of  the 
violent  onslaught  made  by  some  English  people,  and  es- 
pecially by  the  Liverpool  rubber  dealers,  against  the  Congo 
Free  State. 

What  England  unceasingly  argues  against  the  Belgian 
Congo — for  the  humanitarian  movement  is  only  a  pretext — 
namely,  the  exploitation  by  the  Government  of  such  parts  of 
the  territory  as  are  not  private  property  of  individuals,  is 
actually  made  a  rule  by  the  [German]  decree  just  referred  to. 
A  previous  decree  of  the  Government  has  still  more  closely 
indicated  what  parts  of  the  territory  are  assigned  to  the 
Treasury  as  forest  reservations.  Added  to  the  other  Treasury 
lands  of  various  description  they  cover  more  than  nine-tenths 
of  the  Colony. 

The  conclusion  is  that  in  German  East  Africa,  as  well  as  in 
the  Congo  Free  State,  the  rubber  harvest,  in  which  the  Liver- 
pool merchants  take  such  lively  interest,  is  gathered  from 
crown-lands  only,  and  practically  constitutes  a  State  monopoly. 

Now,  a  large  part  of  German  East  Africa  comes  under  the 
provisions  of   the  Berlin  Act.     And,  in  order  to  show  the 


334  Story  of  the  Coni^o  Free  State 

extent  to  which  British  hypocrisy  will  go,  it  is  enough  to  recall 
that  for  years,  both  in  British  East  Africa  and  in  Uganda, 
which  also  partly  come  under  the  scope  of  the  Berlin  Act, 
the  same  government  rules  have  been  enforced,  declaring 
india-rubber  a  State  monopoly  not  only  on  the  crown-lands, 
but  even  on  private  estates. 

What  is  lawful  for  one  party  must  be  lawful  for  the  other, 
and  we  cannot  reproach  the  Congo  Free  State  for  upholding 
against  British  would-be  interference  such  rights  of  the 
Crown  as  other  governments  maintain  in  their  own  colonies. 

This  example  of  vigorous  Teutonic  candour  might 
be  repeated  from  the  columns  of  many  other  Euro- 
pean journals,  but  the  desire  to  avoid  passing  from 
the  historical  to  the  controversial  in  the  present  work 
must  limit  the  use  of  abundant  similar  material. 

To  show  that  the  direct  exploitation  of  domanial 
forests  is  made  a  legitimate  source  of  revenue  in 
Eastern  countries,  the  instance  of  Japan  may  be 
cited.  That  brave  little  country,  so  heroically  en- 
gaged in  fighting  for  the  unmolested  right  to  pursue 
its  brilliant  course  of  modern  progress,  directly  culti- 
vates and  harvests  for  the  benefit  of  its  treasury  a 
State  domain  equal  to  seven  times  the  entire  area  of 
Belgium! 

When  the  ministers  of  his  Majesty,  King  Leopold, 
were  requested  to  indicate  the  principles  upon  which 
the  Domaine  Prive  of  the  Congo  Free  State  was 
developed,  they  stated  that,  having  in  view  the 
necessity  for  revenue  from  the  soil,  the  civilising  in- 
fluence of  labour,  and  the  social,  physical,  and  moral 
condition  of  the  African  black,  they  had  devised 
that  scheme  which  would  attract  the  only  existing 
available  labour  in  the  country,  the  co-operation  of 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  335 

the  native,  for  which  co-operation  the  State  not  only 
paid  him,  but  provided  him  with  hberating  and  en- 
lightening opportunities  for  participating  in  the 
growth  of  African  civiHsation.  In  its  official  reports 
the  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State  refers  to  its 
aims  in  this  respect: 

The  object  which  the  Government  aims  at,  is  to  succeed  in 
turning  the  private  domain  of  the  State  to  profit,  exclusively 
by  means  of  voluntary  contributions  [of  labour]  from  the 
natives,  and  inducing  them  to  work  through  the  allurement 
of  an  earned  and  adequate  payment.  The  rate  must  be 
sufficiently  remunerative  to  stimulate  in  the  natives  the  de- 
sire of  obtaining  it,  and,  as  a  consequence,  to  induce  them 
to  gather  in  the  products  of  the  domain. 

Where  the  attraction  of  commercial  benefit  is  not  sufficient 
to  assure  the  working  of  the  private  domain,  it  is  necessary 
to  resort  to  the  tax  in  kind ;  but,  even  in  this  case,  the  work  is 
remunerated  in  the  same  manner  as  the  voluntary  contribu- 
tions. The  Government's  orders  in  this  respect  are  positive. 
Properly  speaking,  the  tax  in  kind  is  not  a  real  tax,  since  the 
local  value  of  the  products  brought  in  by  the  natives  is  given 
to  them  in  exchange. 

The  Government  has  never  neglected  an  opportunity  to 
remind  its  agents,  intrusted  with  the  collection  of  taxes  in 
kind,  that  their  part  is  that  of  an  educator:  their  mission  is 
to  impress  on  the  mind  of  the  natives  the  taste  for  work ;  and 
the  means  available  would  fail  of  their  aim  if  compulsion  was 
changed  into  violence. 

What  is  called  the  Domain  of  the  Crown  is  a 
limited  territory  defined  by  decrees  dated  March  8, 
1896,  and  December  23,  1901,  lying  in  the  basins  of 
Lake  Leopold  II.  and  of  the  Lukenie  River,  in  the 
basin  of  the  Busira-Momboya  River,  and  between 
certain  boundaries  at  the  confluence  of  the  Lubefu 


336  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

and  Sankuru  rivers,  to  the  western  summit-line  of 
the  Lukenie  basin,  and  including  certain  contiguous 
areas.  These  lands  include  six  discovered  mines 
which  have  so  far  not  been  worked.  The  Domain 
of  the  Crown  is  a  corporate  body  administered  by 
a  committee  of  three  persons  appointed  by  the 
Sovereign. 

The  forests  of  the  Congo  are  the  finest  in  the 
world.  They  contain  a  great  variety  of  hard  and 
soft  wood,  fruit-bearing  trees,  rubber  trees  and 
vines,  and  gum  trees,  and  constitute  an  industrial 
wealth  which  is  being  preserved  by  enforcing  rigor- 
ous laws.  A  decree  dated  July  7,  1898,  and  orders 
dated  November  22,  1898,  and  March  21,  1902, 
regulate  timber  cutting.  Under  these,  steamboats 
may  take  on  supplies  of  wood  fuel  on  payment  of 
an  annual  tax  measured  according  to  their  tonnage 
and  speed. 

The  mining  laws  of  the  State  are  embodied  in  the 
decrees  of  June  8,  1888,  and  March  20,  1893.  They 
provide,  amongst  other  things,  that  the  purchase  of 
land  from  the  State  or  from  individuals  does  not 
' '  confer  the  right  of  working  the  mineral  riches  be- 
neath the  surface ' ' ;  that  ' '  mineral  riches  remain  the 
property  of  the  State ' ' ;  that  ' '  no  person  can  work 
a  mine  except  by  virtue  of  a  special  concession  from 
the  State  ";  that  "the  Government  fixes  by  decree 
the  regions  where  mining  researches  are  authorised 
either  in  favour  of  all  persons  without  distinction, 
or  of  the  persons  specified  in  the  decrees."  A 
licence  fee  of  2500  francs  and  other  fees  are  imposed 
upon  those  who,  having  discovered  mineral -bearing 


^ 


(^ 


State  Lands  and  Concessions 


jj, 


properties,  desire  to  work  them.  A  mining  con- 
cession is  limited  to  an  area  not  exceeding  24,000 
acres.  Article  4  of  the  decree  of  March  25,  1893, 
provides  that: 

Whoever  shall  discover  a  mine  in  the  regions  where  he  is 
authorised  to  make  researches  in  conformity  with  Article  3, 
can  obtain  a  right  of  preference  for  ten  years  for  the  concession 
of  this  mine,  on  condition  that  he  complies  with  the  regula- 
tions laid  down  in  the  present  Decree. 

All  mining  concessions  are  limited  to  a  term  of 
ninety-nine  years.  On  its  expiration  the  State 
succeeds  to  the  property  as  it  stands.  A  system  of 
royalties  on  the  product  of  the  mine  is  stipulated  in 
all  concessions.  Such  royalties  shall  not  be  less  than 
one  dollar  a  year  on  each  2.47  acres.  These  fixed 
annual  charges  may  be  commuted  by  arrangement 
with  the  State. 

In  commenting  upon  the  criticism  which  British 
merchants  and  their  allies  have  uttered  against  the 
entire  land  system  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  an 
eminent  Belgian  closely  identified  with  those  who 
support  the  Congolese  policy  has  said: 

It  is  an  easy  matter  to  point  out,  in  an  undertaking  sucli 
as  the  Congolese  enterprise,  the  inherent  imperfections  and 
difhculties  of  the  task,  and  the  accidental  defects  in  the  in- 
struments which  the  State  is  called  upon  to  employ. 

It  is,  however,  very  unfair  to  hide  under  a  bushel  the  good 
results  which  have  been  obtained,  and  the  progress  which  has 
been  realised,  and  to  expose  on  a  pinnacle  a  few  exceptional 
and  regrettable  facts,  to  draw  a  conclusion  from  particular 
cases  to  the  detriment  of  the  general  rule,  and  to  condemn 
wholesale  an  institution  which  draws  forth  the  admiration 


33^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

even  of  its  enemies,  and  of  which  a  witness,  certainly  to  be 
little  suspected,  has  been  able  to  say:  "/w  the  whole  history 
of  Colonial  life,  there  is  no  example  on  record  of  such  a  result 
obtained  in  such  a  short  period  of  time.'' 

We  are  far  from  overlooking  the  important  role  which 
criticism  plays  in  a  matter  which  is  as  yet  so  little  advanced 
as  the  art  and  science  of  colonisation,  but  in  order  to  play 
this  role  properly,  the  critic  must  remain  impartial. 

After  all,  if  these  severe  criticisms  have  been  at  times 
formulated,  there  are  ample  compensations  in  many  authori- 
tative comments  from  abroad.  For  instance,  M.  de  Lanessan, 
formerly  Minister  of  the  Admiralty  in  France,  says: 

"Belgium  has  shown  that,  in  matters  of  colonisation,  she 
possesses  more  practical  and  rational  ideas  than  ourselves, 
and  a  better  understanding  of  the  methods  of  modem  col- 
onisation." 

As  to  the  condition  of  the  natives,  this  is  the  opinion  of  Sir 
Harry  Johnston,  speaking  from  experience  of  that  part  of  the 
Congo  which  was  formerly  the  most  backward: 

"This  portion  of  the  Congo  Free  State  was  inhabited  by 
cheerful  natives  who  repeatedly,  and  without  solicitation  on 
my  part,  compared  the  good  times  they  were  now  having,  to 
the  misery  and  terror  which  preceded  them  when  the  Arabs 
and  Manyema  had  established  themselves  in  the  country  as 
chiefs  and  slave-traders." 

As  this  volume  is  going  to  press,  advices  are  to 
hand  that  M.  Gaston  Doumergue,  the  French  Minis- 
ter for  the  Colonies,  submitted  to  the  President  of 
the  RepubHc  of  France — and  on  October  23,  1904, 
procured  his  signature  to — a  decree  consolidating 
the  Repubhc's  legislation  concerning  French  West 
Africa.  This  decree  reaffirms  that  "all  vacant  lands 
in  the  colonies  of  French  West  Africa  are  the  property 
of  the  State  ' ' ;  that  the  property  of  the  State  may 
be  alienated,  leased,  or  developed  according  to  the 


State  Lands  and  Concessions  339 

methods  employed  in  the  Free  State;  that  conces- 
sions may  be  granted;  that  property  held  in  com- 
mon by  tribes  under  their  chiefs  may  not  be  sold 
by  them  without  the  State's  consent,  etc.  In 
short,  the  success  of  the  land  regime  practised  by  the 
Congo  Free  State  having  convinced  the  Germans 
and  the  French  of  its  wisdom,  both  countries  have 
now  conformed  their  own  laws  to  it. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
THE  NEMESIS  OF  LIBEL 

ON  Friday,  the  25th  of  March,  1904,  in  the  King's 
Bench  Division  of  the  High  Court  of  Justice, 
London,  the  case  of  Captain  Henri  Joseph 
Leon  De  Keyser,  and  his  colleagues-in-arms,  Com- 
mandants Chaltin  and  Dubreucq,  against  Captain 
Guy  Burrows,  an  EngUshman,  one  time  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  his  pubHshers, 
Messrs.  R.  A.  Everett  &  Co.,  London,  came  on  for 
trial  before  Mr.  Justice  Ridley  and  a  special  jury. 

The  trial  of  this  action  for  libel  is  the  first  which 
has,  so  far,  been  determined  against  those  who  are 
charged  with  traducing  the  men  whose  courage  in, 
and  devotion  to,  the  Congo  cause  has  erected  a  pros- 
perous State  in  the  heart  of  savage  Africa.  The  case 
irradiates  much  that  has  been  long  proceeding  in 
Great  Britain,  and  that  has  recently  received  sig- 
nificant impetus  in  the  United  States  through  the 
action  of  certain  persons  operating  from  the  city  of 
Boston. 

The  author  has  no  acquaintance  with  any  of  the 
parties  to  this  case,  but  deems  it  incumbent  upon 
one  who  essays  to  write  a  full  history  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  to  include  an  account  of  litigation  which 
in  its  proceedings  and  result  reveals  and  explains 

340 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  341 

many  things  with  which  the  present  work  will  not 
otherwise  specifically  deal. 

Belgian  officers  brought  this  action  against  an 
English  officer,  whom  they  charged  with  libel  and 
attempted  blackmail,  before  a  British  jury.  Captain 
Guy  Burrows,  the  defendant,  had  published  a  book 
containing  false  statements  of  atrocities  in  the  Congo. 
He  had  followed  the  Liverpool  and  Boston  custom 
of  attributing  villainy  to  the  officers  of  the  Congo 
State  Government.  But  imlike  the  Liverpool  and 
Boston  general  allegations.  Captain  Burrows  attrib- 
uted the  wrongful  acts  to  Captain  De  Keyser  and 
Commandants  Chaltin  and  Dubreucq.  What  the 
Court  thought  of  the  case  as  it  sensationally  unfolded 
itself  may  be  gleaned  from  the  observations  and 
summing  up  of  Mr.  Justice  Ridley.  What  the  jury 
felt  is  indicated  in  its  verdict  for  damages  against 
the  defendants  in  all  the  cases. 

To  ensure  the  fairest  statement  of  this  interesting 
and  informing  suit,  the  following  quotations,  ver- 
batim et  literatim,  are  taken  from  a  stenographic 
report  of  the  trial. 

There  was  a  fine  array  of  learned  counsel  on  both 
sides,  among  whom  Sir  Edward  Clarke,  K.C.,  Mr. 
J.  Eldon  Bankes,  K.C.,  and  Mr.  Lewis  Thomas  (in- 
structed by  Messrs.  Bird,  Strode  &  Bird,  solicitors) 
appeared  for  the  plaintiffs;  Mr.  Crispe,  K.C.,  and  Mr. 
Swanton  for  the  defendant  Burrows;  and  Mr.  Ger- 
maine,  K.C.,  and  Mr.  G.  A.  Scott  for  the  defendants, 
Messrs.  R.  A.  Everett  &  Co. 

Defendants'  counsel  opened  the  case  by  asking 
leave  of  the  Court  to  withdraw  his  clients'  plea  of 


342  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

justification,  by  which,  in  popular  terms,  he  stated 
that  Captain  Burrows  was  unable  to  prove  any  of 
the  monstrous  accusations  he  had  made  against  Cap- 
tain De  Keyser  and  his  colleagues,  in  the  book  which 
contained  the  libels  complained  of.  After  this  dra- 
matic collapse  of  previous  pretence,  Sir  Edward 
Clarke  proceeded  with  the  case  as  follows : 

May  it  please  your  Lordship. — Gentlemen  of  the  Jury,  I 
feel  bound  to  preface  the  observations  that  I  have  to  make 
to  you  upon  this  case  by  just  a  very  short  reference  to  what 
has  taken  place  this  morning.  A  very  sudden  transformation 
has  occurred  in  the  condition  of  the  case,  and  in  the  issues 
which  are  to  be  put  before  you.  In  February  last  year  Cap- 
tain De  Keyser,  a  gentleman  who  has  served  in  the  Belgian 
Army,  and  who  has  been  employed  in  the  Congo  Free  State, 
found  himself  compelled,  by  circumstances  which  I  shall  ex- 
plain to  you  in  a  few  minutes,  to  take  the  opportunity  of 
bringing  this  action  against  Captain  Burrows  and  against 
some  London  publishers  in  respect  of  accusations  against  him 
of  the  gravest  possible  kind — accusations  dishonouring  to  his 
character  as  a  man  of  honour  and  as  a  man  of  humanity,  and 
dishonouring  to  him  as  an  officer  in  the  Belgian  Army;  and 
he  brought  his  action  in  February  last  year.  Thereupon,  in 
the  course  of  the  year.  Captain  Burrows  puts  on  a  defence  in 
the  month  of  April  or  May,  and  Messrs.  Everett  &  Company 
put  on  a  defence  in  the  month  of  August,  in  which  they  say 
that  those  accusations  against  Captain  De  Keyser  were  true; 
and  what  were  called  Particulars,  to  which,  however,  I  need 
not  now  refer,  were  put  in,  in  which  it  was  alleged  that  Cap- 
tain De  Keyser  had  been  guilty  of  infamous  conduct  as  a 
servant  of  the  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  This 
case  has  gone  on  month  after  month.  There  have  been  ques- 
tions as  to  the  time  when  it  should  be  tried,  and  those  who 
were  advising  Captain  De  Keyser  and  those  who  are  interested 
in  this  matter  have  had  the  anxious  duty  of  taking  care  that 
it  never  could  possibly  be  said  that  the  Defendants  did  not 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  343 

have  a  fair  opportunity  of  trial.  The  case  stood  over  for  a 
considerable  time,  and  even  so  lately  as  when  it  was  before 
the  Lord  Chief  Justice  there  was  a  practical  assent  on  the 
part  of  the  Plaintiffs  to  the  postponement  of  the  case  in  order 
that  no  one  should  ever  say  that  the  Defendants  had  not  the 
fullest  opportunity  of  putting  their  case  before  you;  and  now, 
at  this  moment,  when  we  come  into  Court  to-day,  suddenly, 
the  statement  that  the  accusations  are  true  is  absolutely 
struck  out.  Not  only  do  the  Defendants  say  that  they  are  not 
prepared  to  call  witnesses  to  support  the  allegation  that  those 
allegations  are  true,  but  they  appear  not  to  be  prepared  even  to 
challenge  Captain  De  Keyser  himself,  or  to  ask  him  any  ques- 
tions as  to  his  conduct  in  the  Congo  Free  State.  I  do  not  know 
how  far  I  may  be  allowed  to  go — how  far  it  may  be  possible 
in  the  present  state  of  the  Pleadings  for  me  to  get  any  abso- 
lute vindication  of  Captain  De  Keyser  in  this  Court.  I  dare- 
say my  Lord  will  be  indulgent  with  me  with  regard  to  that, 
looking  at  the  very  cruel  position  in  which  this  gallant  officer 
has  been  placed  by  accusations  made  against  him  which  might 
affect,  and,  I  believe,  have  affected  him,  very  seriously  in 
private  life — accusations  which  have  come  to  be  known  and 
to  be  talked  about — accusations,  as  he  was  prepared  to  show, 
which  were  absolutely  untrue,  and  accusations  at  the  very 
last  moment  withdrawn,  struck  away  from  the  Record,  when 
not  only  has  he  been  here  prepared  to  give  his  evidence,  but 
when  we  have  tried  to  get,  and  succeeded  in  getting,  as  many 
of  those  as  could  be  possibly  called  here  who  were  associated 
with  him  in  his  responsible  work  in  the  Congo  Free  State  to 
carry  to  a  demonstration  the  proof  that  he  could  give  that 
there  was  not  a  tittle  of  foundation  for  the  injurious  state- 
ments that  have  been  made  about  him.  Now,  at  the  last 
moment,  it  comes  to  a  question  of  publication,  and  my  learned 
friends  have  taken  the  position  that  if  I  can  prove  against 
them  that  there  was  a  publication  of  these  libels,  then  they 
are  without  a  defence,  and  are  not  able  to  say  that  there  is 
any  truth  in  the  statements  that  they  have  made,  and  must 
submit  to  such  verdict  as  you  may  give  in  the  matter.  As  to 
the  verdict,  I  do  not  know  whether,  in  Ihc  ultimate  results, 


344         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  amount  of  it  will  matter  very  much,  but  you  may  think, 
when  you  hear  the  statement  I  have  to  make  to  you  with 
regard  to  the  publication  of  these  accusations,  that  it  is  a 
case  in  which,  whether  there  is  ever  any  possibility  of  recover- 
ing the  money  or  not,  at  all  events  there  should  be  a  very 
definite  expression  of  your  view  with  regard  to  the  conduct 
that  these  parties  have  pursued.  I  shall  prove  not  only  a 
publication,  but  I  shall  prove  an  attempt  to  blackmail  the 
Belgian  authorities,  and  the  authorities  of  the  Congo  Free 
State,  by  these  people  in  conjunction.  Captain  Burrows  and 
Everett  &  Co.  I  believe  I  shall  prove  it  up  to  the  hilt,  and 
then  it  will  be  for  you  to  say,  by  your  verdict,  what  you 
think  of  the  conduct  of  which  they  have  been  guilty. 

Gentlemen,  I  must  limit  very  closely  the  observations  which 
I  was  going  to  make  to  you.  My  learned  friend  and  I  had 
somewhat  laboriously  prepared  ourselves  for  dealing  with  all 
the  possible  issues  of  fact  that  might  be  raised  in  this  case 
that  were  suggested  by  the  accusations  against  Captain  De 
Keyser.  That  has  passed  out  of  the  case,  and  I  must  treat 
very  shortly  the  questions  with  which  I  should  otherwise  have 
had  at  some  length  to  deal.  It  is  essential  when  you  are  con- 
sidering the  persons  against  whom,  if  I  prove  the  publication, 
your  verdict  must  go,  for  you  to  consider  who  those  persons 
are.  The  accusations  which  were  made  have  been  made  by 
Captain  Burrows  and  published  by  the  Everetts,  and  were 
accusations  which  concerned  the  course  of  government  in  the 
Congo  Free  State,  a  matter  which  has  attracted  great  attention 
from  time  to  time  and  with  regard  to  which  certain  very 
strong  statements  have  been  made  in  this  country  and  else- 
where. 

Now,  Gentlemen,  the  Congo  Free  State  is  a  State  which,  as 
a  separate  and  independent  State,  has  not  existed  very  long. 
It  was  in  the  year  1884  or  1885  that  that  State  was  consti- 
tuted under  the  Government  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  who 
is  called  the  King  Sovereign  of  the  State,  and  it  has  from  that 
time  been  administered  by  Belgian  authorities  as  the  author- 
ity of  the  Free  State.  It  has  been  a  Government  in  process 
of  construction,  and  it  was  not,  perhaps,  until  the  year  1891 


00 


S 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  345 

that  it  can  be  said  that  there  was  an  organised  system  of 
government  extending  over  the  Congo  Free  State.  It  is  an 
enormous  area  of  over  800,000  square  miles.  It  is  an  area 
scantily  populated,  but  populated  by  savages  of  almost  the 
lowest  type  of  existence,  savages  among  whom  the  practice 
of  cannibalism,  the  practice  of  mutilation  of  enemies  who 
have  been  killed  in  battle,  and  of  violent  punishments  as  be- 
tween one  tribe  and  another,  had  reigned  without  check  until 
the  representatives  of  civilisation  came,  in  the  officers  of  the 
Congo  Free  State,  and  established  some  sort  of  organisation 
and  government  throughout  that  country.  The  difficulties 
have  been  enormous.  The  difficulty  of  dealing  with  an  area 
of  more  than  800,000  square  miles  with  only  a  very  few  hun- 
dred white  men  who  were  in  command  of  black  troops,  drawn 
from  the  very  tribes  whose  habits  I  just  now  referred  to,  has 
been  enormous.  It  has  been  one  of  the  most  anxious  and 
difficult  tasks  that  a  civilised  country  ever  undertook.  That 
task  has  been  fulfilled — on  the  whole  with  signal  success.  No 
set  of  men  are  absolutely  free  from  reproach.  The  position  of 
the  representatives  of  the  Congo  Free  State  has  been  an 
extremely  difficult  one.  At  the  time  when  Captain  De  Key- 
ser  went  out,  a  captain  and  seventy-five  men  had  been  killed 
a  few  weeks  before,  very  near  to  the  place  where  he  was  sent 
to  carry  on  his  work.  Every  white  man  is  surrounded  by 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  black  men,  and  is  in  a  position  not 
only  of  great  responsibility  but  of  great  personal  danger  and 
of  great  difficulty,  and  there  may  have  been  here  and  there 
a  default  on  the  part  of  now  one  and  now  another  of  the  offi- 
cers in  the  employ  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  It  has  not  been 
the  fault  of  that  State,  for  from  time  to  time  orders  have 
been  issued  to  the  officers  of  the  Free  State,  by  which  it  has 
been  attempted  to  prevent  any  sort  of  misconduct,  and  there 
have  been  administrative  orders  by  which  severe  punishments 
have  been  inflicted  on  the  natives  for  cannibalism  or  for  the 
mutilation  of  persons  who  have  been  killed  in  battle,  and  this 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  people  has  been  going 
on  with  great  success.  Captain  Burrows,  who  wrote  against 
Captain  De  Keyser  these  most  atrocious  libels,  has  been  on 


34^         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

two  occasions  in  the  employment  of  the  Congo  Free  State. 
He  was  employed  there  from  June,  1894,  until  September, 
1897.  He  never  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  or  knowing 
the  character  of  the  work  which  Captain  De  Keyser  did,  for 
they  were  together  only  fourteen  days  in  the  year  1897.  But 
from  1894  to  1897  Captain  Burrows  was  out  in  the  Congo 
Free  State.  He  came  back  to  Europe  in  1897,  ^^^  the  first 
interesting  circumstance  about  him  is  that  he  became  at  once 
the  champion  of  the  Congo  Free  State  against  allegations 
made  by  Captain  Salusbury.  In  1896  Captain  Salusbury  had 
made  accusations  against  certain  oflticers  of  the  Congo  Free 
State,  and  one  of  his  allegations  had  been  that  there  were 
mutilations— hand-cutting  and  the  like.  Captain  Burrows 
made  himself  the  defender  of  the  Congo  Free  State  and  of  its 
administration.  He  had  had  four  years'  experience,  and  he 
sought  an  interview  with  the  Etoile  Beige,  and  had  a  conver- 
sation with  the  representative  of  that  newspaper,  which  was 
pifblished ;  and  you  will  find  in  a  letter  from  Captain  Burrows 
that  he  takes  to  himself  the  credit  for  what  he  had  done  in 
getting  rid  of,  or  answering,  the  accusations  of  Captain  Salus- 
bury. I  will  read  a  line  or  two  from  this  statement:  "As  for 
his  accusations," — that  is,  Captain  Salusburv^'s  accusations 
against  the  Congo  State  and  the  Belgian  officers  who  employ 
him, — "they  fail  from  the  outset.  It  is  without  any  compul- 
sion that  the  natives  enlist  in  the  public  forces.  The  harvest 
of  ivory  and  caoutchouc  gives  rise  to  no  atrocity.  I  have  wit- 
nessed none  of  the  odious  deeds  related  by  Captain  Salusbury, 
and  they  certainly  would  have  come  to  my  knowledge  if  they 
had  been  real.  I  say  this  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  true." 
Then  at  the  end  he  says  as  to  the  action  of  the  Government : 
"With  such  accounts  one  is  silent  instead  of  becoming  an 
accuser.  I  do  not  pretend  that  all  is  perfect  at  Congo.  It 
certainly  commits  errors  sometimes,  but  truth  compels  me  to 
state  that  the  Government  seeks  only  to  redress  them,  and  to 
punish  those  who  have  been  guilty  of  it.  The  Belgian  officers 
do  not  use  their  men  brutally  at  will  as  Captain  Salusbury 
has  affirmed.  Indeed,  the  soldiers  are  much  attached  to 
the  greater  number    of    their  white   chiefs,   and    the    latter 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  347 

can  confidently  count  on  their  courage  and  devotion  in  time 
of  war." 

The  close  of  it  all  was— and  this  you  will  find  extremely 
important  when  you  see  what  Captain  Burrows  was  saying 
later:  "The  tales  that  have  been  told  of  cut  hands  are  all 
pure  legend.  I  have  never  seen  a  living  native  mutilated. 
As  for  the  cannibal  customs  of  certain  tribes  of  the  Congo, 
they  should  not  be  charged  to  the  whites,  who  do  what  they 
can  to  modify  them,  but  who  can  only  succeed  in  doing  it  after 
lapse  of  time."  That  was  as  explicit  as  it  was  possible  to  be. 
That  was  published  in  the  year  1898.  He  came  back  in  1897. 
You  will  find  a  reference  in  the  letter  which  I  am  going  to 
read.  He  published  a  book.  I  will  read  the  letter  first.  The 
letter  is  the  20th  November,  1897.  "Dear  Mr.  Liebrechts, — 
I  send  you  the  last  article  of  Mr.  Salusbury.  ...  I  do 
not  like  asking  anything  for  myself,  but  if  it  were  possible 
for  you  to  obtain  for  me  the  order  of  the  '  Lion,'  and  that 
I  should  be  named  the  Captain  Commandant  of  the  first 
class,  Salusbury  would  know  it,  and  this  would  be  an  ab- 
solute denial  of  his  exposures.  ...  I  have  an  idea  of 
writing  a  book  entitled  The  Truth  about  the  Congo.  It 
should  be  dedicated  (I  do  not  know  if  that  is  the  word)  to 
the  King,  and  an  introduction  written  by  Stanley.  What  do 
you  think  of  the  idea?  Yours  always.  Burrows."  M.  Lie- 
brechts is  the  Secretary  General  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  resi- 
dent in  Brussels.  He  has  had  the  administration  of  the  Congo 
under  the  King  for  years  past.  He  himself  served  for  six 
years  in  the  Congo,  came  back,  and  has  been  Under  Secretary 
for  the  Congo  Free  State  since  1889.  He  has  been  Secretary 
General  for  the  State,  and  has  had  the  responsibility  for  the 
administration  of  the  place,  and  is  at  present  here  in  Court. 

In  that  letter  he  refers  to  an  introduction  written  by  Stan- 
ley— that  is,  Sir  Henry  M.  Stanley.  Here  is  the  book  that 
was  published.  It  was  not  called  The  Truth  about  Central 
Ajrica;  it  was  called  The  Land  of  tlie  Pigmies.  It  is  dedicated 
to  the  King  of  the  Belgians  by  permission,  and  it  does  contain 
an  introduction  by  Stanley.  It  purports  to  give  a  full  account 
of  the  Congo  State,  and  I  need  hardly  say  there  is  not  the 


348         Stoiy  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

smallest  reference  in  it  as  to  any  sort  of  atrocity.  At  one 
page  there  is  a  statement  of  a  man  being  caught,  who  had  been 
guilty  of  inhuman  conduct,  and  of  his  being  most  severely 
punished,  but  that  is  given  as  an  instance  of  the  untruth  of 
the  stories  that  inhumanity  was  allowed.  This  was  the  posi- 
tion in  1898.  Captain  Burrows  went  back  in  June,  1898,  and 
was  at  Basoko  from  1898  till  February,  1901.  Then  he  came 
back  to  Europe  on  the  21st  of  May,  1901.  He  wrote  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Liebrechts.  You  will  be  interested  to  note  the  atti- 
tude he  takes  with  regard  to  his  treatment  by  the  Congo  Free 
State.  "Sir,  I  have  the  honour  to  ask  you  to  have  the  good- 
ness to  request  the  Government  to  permit  me  to  convert  into 
capital  (i.  e.,  sell)  my  allotment  of  the  public  debt  4  per  cent. 
Congo  Free  State,  granted  by  your  letter  dated  the  19th 
April,  1 90 1."  The  explanation  is  that  when  an  officer  has 
served  in  the  Congo  for  a  certain  time  and  retires  from  the  ser- 
vice there  is  allotted  to  him  a  certain  income  from  the  Public 
Debt,  and  he  is  allowed  to  take  that  as  a  lump  sum,  instead 
of  receiving  the  interest  from  year  to  year  upon  the  propor- 
tion which  is  allotted  to  him.  "The  motives  which  have  de- 
cided me  to  make  this  request  are  as  follows:  It  is  more  than 
probable  that  I  shall  not  return  any  more  to  the  Congo.  I 
shall  in  all  probability  go  to  the  Transvaal,  and  in  that  case 
the  stock  granted  to  me  would  be  almost  useless.  It  would 
indeed  be  difficult  for  me  to  again  enter  into  service  with  the 
State  after  having  been  four  times  passed  over  for  promotion 
by  officers  of  shorter  terms  of  service.  Moreover,  I  have 
never  received  any  increase  of  pay  during  the  two  years  and 
six  months  of  my  last  term  of  service  as  Commissioner  of  the 
district  of  Aruwimi.  In  spite  of  services  rendered  since 
my  arrival  in  the  Congo  in  July,  1898,  I  was  the  object  of 
unrelenting  suspicion  on  the  part  of  several  functionaries  of 
the  State,  and  I  am  informed  that  many  of  these  gentlemen 
disparage  me  to  the  State.  Amongst  the  services  which  I 
have  rendered  I  can  remind  you  that  it  was  I  who  silenced 
Captain  Salusbury.  I  wrote  and  published  a  book  distinctly 
favourable  to  the  State,  for  which  Sir  Henry  M.  Stanley  was 
pleased  to  write  the  introduction.     I  regret,  Sir,  that  such  cir- 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  349 

cumstances  oblige  me  to  quit  the  service  of  the  State. 
I  have  the  honour  to  remain,  District  Commissioner  Burrows." 
You  see  by  that  that  he  was  leaving  the  service.  He  was 
stating  his  grievances:  that  his  pay  had  not  been  properly 
raised,  and  that  he  had  not  received  sufficient  distinction. 
The  next  thing  that  happens  is  on  the  15th  of  November, 
I  go  I — a  note  which  is  the  beginning,  as  you  watch  from  this 
point,  of  the  scheme  by  which  it  was  attempted  to  blackmail 
the  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  or  anybody  else,  by 
the  combination  of  Captain  Burrows  and  Messrs.  Everett, 
publishers  of  his  second  book.  On  the  15th  of  November, 
1 90 1,  this  very  curious  note  was  written:  "Dear  Monsieur 
Liebrechts.  I  should  be  very  grateful  if  you  would  have  the 
kindness  to  tell  me  if  the  State  wishes  to  employ  me  again. 
If  so,  will  you  let  me  know  the  conditions?  Mr.  Canisius  is 
here.  He  says  that  he  is  engaged  in  writing  a  book  on  the 
Congo."  That  is  a  very  interesting  bit  of  information.  Mon- 
sieur Canisius  was  a  gentleman  who  had  been  in  the  employ- 
ment of  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  had  left  that  employment 
to  go  into  the  employment  of  a  private  Company,  and  then 
had  desired  to  come  back  into  the  employment  of  the  Congo 
Free  State.  He  had  been  refused.  It  is  a  rule,  I  think,  with 
the  Congo  Free  State  not  to  take  back  into  the  State  service 
those  who  have  left  to  serve  in  private  companies.  Captain 
Burrows  says:  "Canisius  is  here.  He  is  engaged  in  writing 
a  book  on  the  Congo."  M.  Canisius  was  not  there;  M. 
Canisius  at  that  time  was  on  the  Gold  Coast!  It  was  a  very 
curious  notification  to  send:  "Are  you  going  to  have  me  back 
into  the  State  service?  There  is  somebody  here  who  is  writ- 
ing a  book."  On  the  23rd  of  November  he  was  answered  by 
Commandant  Liebrechts:  "I  have  duly  received  your  letter 
of  the  15th  of  November  and  hasten  to  thank  you  for  the 
communication  you  have  been  good  enough  to  make  me.  I 
heard  Monsieur  Canisius  was  spreading  certain  calumnies 
about  the  State."  On  the  i6th  December  Captain  Burrows 
writes  again:  "I  presume  that  your  letter  is  a  refusal  on  the 
part  of  the  Free  State  to  re-engage  me  for  a  third  term  of 
service.     I  beg  you  to  enlighten  me  on  this  point,  then  I  shall 


350  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

know  whether  I  am  free  or  not  to  do  what  I  wish" — another 
very  interesting  suggestion ;  it  is  enlightened  very  much  by 
what  you  will  hear  shortly.  On  the  21st  of  December  M.  Lie- 
brechts  writes  thus:  "I  quite  understood  at  the  time  of  our 
last  conversations,  that  you  no  longer  wished  to  resume  serv- 
ice at  the  Congo,  and  we  seemed  to  be  agreed  that  a  post 
suitable  to  your  capabilities  would  be  very  difficult  to  find  in 
Africa.  You  must  not,  however,  conclude  that  we  shall  no 
longer  be  able  to  make  use  of  your  services  should  an  occasion 
arise,  for  special  missions,  such  as  may  arise  at  any  moment 
in  other  regions.  If  you  were  inclined  to  hold  yourself  at 
our  disposal,  I  should  be  obliged  if  you  would  let  me  know." 
On  .the  31st  December  Captain  Burrows  wrote:  "I  do  not 
remember  the  conversation  alluded  to  in  your  letter  of  the 
2ist  December,  in  which  I  said  quite  plainly  that  I  no  longer 
wished  to  resume  service  at  the  Congo.  I  understood  that  it 
was  a  question  of  the  conditions  under  which  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  resume  such  service.  You  ask  me  if  I  am  dis- 
posed to  hold  myself  at  the  disposal  of  the  State  with  a  view 
of  being  employed  for  special  missions  which  may  arise  at 
any  moment  in  other  regions.  Am  I  to  understand  that  I 
am  still  in  the  service  of  the  State  or  not?  And  if  so,  under 
what  conditions  of  remuneration,  etc.  ?  "  On  the  2nd  of  Janu- 
ary, 1902,  Commandant  Liebrechts  writes:  "  In  reply  to  your 
letter  of  the  31st  December,  1901,  I  hasten  to  inform  you  that 
your  agreement  ended  with  your  return  to  Europe,  and  that 
since  then  you  have,  according  to  our  laws  and  regulations, 
ceased  to  be  a  member  of  our  staff.  It  is  precisely  for  this 
reason  that  I  asked  you  in  my  last  letter  if  it  would  suit  you 
to  hold  yourself  at  our  disposal  for  a  certain  period — let  us 
say  two  years.  You  will  have  to  undertake  during  that  period 
any  mission  with  which  we  might  entrust  you.  Of  course,  if 
you  accepted  this  proposal,  an  annual  salary  would  be  allowed 
to  you  for  that  period  of  two  years.  But  before  deciding  this 
point  I  should  like  to  know  if,  in  itself,  our  proposal  com- 
mends itself  to  you.  I  should  be  obliged  if  you  would  reply 
as  soon  as  possible." 

Gentlemen  of  the  Jury,  we  have  come  now  to  January,  1902. 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  351 

There  was  an  end  of  the  negotiations,  so  to  speak,  between 
Captain  Burrows  and  Commandant  Liebrechts,  and  Captain 
Burrows  found  himself,  to  use  his  own  expression,  free  to  do 
as  he  chose. 

During  the  early  part  of  1902,  he  began  writing  some  things, 
and  an  advertisement  appeared  in  the  Wide  World  Magazine 
m  which  an  announcement  was  made  of  "Life  in  the  Congo 
Free  State,"  a  series  of  articles  which  were  to  be  published, 
written  by  Captain  Guy  Burrows.  The  advertisement  reads: 
"Captain  Burrows  was  recently  in  the  employ  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  Government,  and  in  his  ofificial  capacity  has  seen 
much  of  the  misgovernment  which  prevails  in  that  little- 
known  territory.  He  has  a  good  deal  to  say  about  the  atroci- 
ties which  have  taken  place  in  connection  with  the  rubber 
industry,  and  the  sworn  testimony  and  photographic  evidence 
which  he  holds  will  no  doubt  create  a  sensation  in  high  circles. 
Captain  Burrows'  articles  in  the  Wide  World  will  be  illustrated 
with  his  own  snapshots."  That  was  the  advertisement  that 
appeared.  Why  there  was  a  mention  of  atrocities  in  it  ap- 
pears presently.  The  articles  appeared  in  April,  May,  and 
June,  in  the  Wide  World.  They  are  articles  with  regard  to 
the  Congo  State,  and  there  is  not  one  syllable  in  them  about 
any  atrocity  of  any  sort  or  kind.  That  is  what  he  was  doing 
in  the  early  part  or  middle  of  the  year  1902.  In  the  latter 
part  of  this  year  an  agreement  was  entered  into  between 
Captain  Burrows  as  author,  and  E.  A.  Everett  &  Co.,  London, 
as  publishers,  for  the  publication  of  a  work  then  entitled  The 
Congo  Free  State.  This  was  signed  on  November  17,  1902. 
On  the  24th  of  November,  1902,  this  letter  was  written  by 
Everett  &  Co.  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  Congo  Free 
State  at  Brussels:  "Sir,  we  have  recently  concluded  a  con- 
tract with  Captain  Guy  Burrows,  well  known  to  the  English 
public  as  having  served  some  years  in  the  service  [sic]  of  the 
Congo  Free  State,  to  publish  an  important  work  on  the  Congo 
Free  State.  The  information  contained  in  this  book  is  of  such 
a  startling  character,  and  contains  so  many  revelations  con- 
cerning the  administration  of  the  Congo  Free  State  of  Bel- 
gium, that  we  thought  it  well  to  advise  you  of  its  publication 


352         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

beforehand,  and  at  the  same  time  to  enquire  if  we  may  have 
the  honour  of  oflfering  you  the  Belgian  rights  for  pubHcation 
in  your  country.  We  are  arranging  for  simultaneous  publi- 
cation in  Italy,  Germany,  France,  Norway,  and  Sweden,  and 
the  United  States  of  America.  We  need  hardly  say  that  the 
book  will  be  well  got  up,  and  illustrated  with  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  valuable  and  unique  photographs  taken  on  the  spot  by 
the  author  and  others.  If  you  wish  to  move  in  the  matter 
of  this  offer,  we  should  be  glad  if  you  would  let  us  know  at 
your  earliest  convenience.."  That,  written  on  the  24th  to  the 
Secretary  General,  was  followed  by  a  curious  communication 
sent  to  the  editor  of  the  Independance  Beige  at  Brussels,  on 
the  27th  November  by  Everett  &  Co.:  "Dear  Sir,  We  send 
you  the  advance  notice  of  the  enclosed  valuable  work,  and 
trust  you  may  find  room  to  insert  the  same  in  your  literary 
column.  If  you  have  an  agent  here,  we  could,  perhaps,  tell 
him  of  some  of  the  marvellous  revelations  in  this  book,  but 
which  we  could  not  put  on  paper."  On  the  8th  of  December 
Commandant  Liebrechts  wrote  to  him:  "  I  have  received  your 
letter  of  the  24th  ulto.,  in  which  you  inform  me  that  you 
have  agreed  with  Captain  Guy  Burrows  for  the  publication  of 
a  work  on  the  Congo  State,  and  you  offer  me  the  rights  of 
publication  in  Belgium.  Before  replying  to  your  proposition 
I  wish  to  see  the  manuscript  or  a  proof  of  the  book."  On  the 
9th  Messrs.  Everett  &  Co.  wrote:  "We  are  in  receipt  of  your 
letter  of  the  8th  inst.,  for  which  we  have  to  thank  you,  and 
we  much  regret, that  we  are  unable  to  comply  with  your  re- 
quest in  sending  you  the  MSS.  of  this  book,  as  we  are  under 
a  contract  with  the  author  not  to  part  with  the  MSS.  under 
any  consideration  whatever.  We  should,  however,  be  happy 
to  send  you  the  title  and  contents  so  as  to  give  you  some  idea 
of  the  nature  and  scope  of  the  book,  and  we  should  also  be 
willing  to  show  the  MSS.  to  any  of  your  accredited  agents  in 
London  (by  appointment).  The  MSS.,  signed  documents,  and 
photographs  are  of  such  vital  importance  that  we  should  not 
care  to  put  them  through  the  post,  for  fear  of  loss.  We  under- 
stand that  the  author,  Captain  Burrows,  was  lately  a  District 
Commissioner  for  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  is  a  Chevalier  of 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  353 

the  Order  of  the  Lion  of  Belgium."  In  consequence  of  their 
offer  to  show  those  documents  to  anybody  who  was  sent  over, 
Mr.  Bigwood  came  over  to  this  country,  and  he  saw  Messrs. 
Everett.  He  met  them  and  had  a  conversation  with  them, 
and  then  there  was  shown  to  him  the  document  of  which  this  is 
a  copy,  called  "The  Curse  of  Central  Africa."  It  was  the  same 
document  as  had  already  been  sent  to  the  Independance  Beige. 
At  the  end  of  chapter  xxv.,  the  very  last  chapter,  there  is 
this:  "A  Belgian's  treatment  of  a  native  chief — more  bestial 
than  human — goes  unpunished."  That  was  afterwards  ap- 
plied to  Captain  De  Keyser.  Then  comes  a  list  of  illustra- 
tions. At  the  end  there  is  a  list  of  Belgian  officers  and  officials 
who,  the  author  alleged,  are  responsible  for  the  atrocities  men- 
tioned in  this  book ;  and  a  series  of  names  included  the  name 
of  Captain  De  Keyser. 

Captain  Burrows  was  in  England  on  the  i6th  of  December. 
He  had  a  conversation  with  Everett  on  the  i  yth  of  December. 
This  note  was  written  to  Mr.  Bigwood  at  the  Hotel  Metropole 
by  R.  A.  Everett:  "With  reference  to  your  visit  yesterday 
at  my  office,  I  think  it  would  be  to  your  advantage  for  you 
to  call  upon  me  at  my  club.  I  shall  be  here  during  the  even- 
ing." That  was  the  National  Liberal  Club,  Whitehall  Place. 
On  the  17th,  Everett  was  at  the  National  Liberal  Club,  and 
he  was  there  with  Captain  Burrows  and  young  Mr.  Everett, 
and  then  a  very  interesting  agreement  was  signed  which 
throws  a  very  clear  light  indeed  upon  the  correspondence  that 
had  been  going  on  with  Brussels.  It  is  witnessed  by  A.  E. 
C.  Everett,  that  is,  the  son,  who  went  over  to  Brussels  and 
posted  the  post  cards  in  bad  French.  Captain  Burrows  signs 
it:  "I  hereby  agree  to  pay  Mr.  John  George  Leigh  the  sum  of 
/^5oo,  if  and  when  my  publishers,  R.  A.  Everett  &  Co.,  42, 
Essex  Street,  Strand,  receive  the  amount  which  may  be  paid 
by  the  Belgian  Government  for  the  non-publication  of  the 
manuscript  written  by  myself  and  him  entitled  '  The  Curse  of 
Central  Africa.'  In  case  the  book  is  published  I  agree  to  pay 
Mr.  J.  G.  Leigh  one  third  of  the  profits  accruing  from  such 
publication  as  per  agreement  with  the  said  publishers."  There 
never  was  more  definite  evidence  of  the  intention  with  which 

23 


354  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

these  communications  had  been  made  with  Brussels.  If  they 
had  succeeded  in  extorting  from  the  Belgian  Government  by 
any  apprehension  of  the  publication  of  these  documents,  a 
substantial  sum  of  money — ^^500 — was  to  be  paid  under  that 
agreement. 

Mr.  Leigh  is  a  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Canisius,  and  Mr. 
Leigh  eventually  signed  the  introduction  to  the  book.  He  is 
a  journalist.  That  agreement  having  been  made  on  the  17th, 
on  the  30th  Mr.  Everett  writes  another  letter  to  the  State 
Secretary:  "At  the  request  of  Mr.  Bigwood,  who  called  upon 
us  recentl}^  on  your  behalf,  we  send  you  a  revise  of  the  title- 
page,  and  one  or  two  chapters  of  this  book"  (you  will  hear 
from  Mr.  Bigwood  that  that  is  not  true;  he  did  not  request 
them  to  send  anything  at  all),  "and  we  shall  be  glad  if  you 
will  let  us  know  definitely,  and  at  once,  whether  you  wish  to 
go  any  further  in  this  matter.  The  more  important  photo- 
graphs detailing  the  cruelties  are  being  enlarged  from  the 
originals,  so  please  do  not  take  the  enclosed  to  be  the  size. — 
We  have  the  honour  to  remain  your  obedient  servants,  R.  A. 
Everett  &  Co." 

In  the  documents  you  will  find  the  passages  to  which  I 
have  now  come,  which  are  contained  in  this:  "Flogging  a 
native  by  order  of  De  Keyser.  At  Basoko,  the  headquarters 
station  of  the  district  of  the  Aruwimi,  where  the  notorious 
De  Keyser  [meaning  thereby  the  Plaintiff],  of  hand-cutting 
fame,  was  in  command,  women  were  daily  flogged  for  the 
most  trivial  offences,  etc."  This,  you  will  notice,  is  stated 
to  have  occurred  in  November,  1897.  It  was  a  time  when 
Captain  Burrows  himself  was  not  in  the  Congo  State  at 
all,  but  you  will  hear  from  Captain  De  Keyser  that  there 
is  not  the  smallest  ground  for  the  allegation  of  cruelty  that 
was  made  against  him.  It  is  true  that  a  chief  was  taken 
down  in  the  steamer  on  which  Captain  De  Keyser  was,  but 
the  suggestion  that  he  was  treated  in  that  barbarous  fash- 
ion is  entirely  untrue.  The  next  passage  which  has  to  be 
read  is  with  regard  to  Basoko,  and  as  to  Basoko,  what  I  have 
told  you  is  that  at  Basoko,  for  fourteen  days  only,  Captain 
Burrows  was  at  the  place  where  Captain  De  Keyser  had  his 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  355 

command.  "At  Basoko,  the  headquarters  station  of  the  dis- 
trict of  the  Aruwimi,  women  used  to  be  flogged  almost  daily 
for  the  most  trivial  offences.  In  one  case  five  women  were 
beaten  for  daring  to  go  to  a  village  a  short  way  up  the  river 
to  buy  food  without  having  previously  informed  the  com- 
mandant." Thus,  after  six  and  a  half  years,  during  which 
no  breath  of  accusation  has  been  made  with  regard  to  these 
matters  by  Captain  Burrows,  there  comes  this  extraordinary 
attack:  "  De  Keyser,  of  hand-cutting  fame";  "De  Keyser's 
massacre  " ;  De  Keyser  described  as  walking  about  the  station 
where  he  was  employed  with  his  gun,  and  shooting  with  reck- 
less cruelty  at  the  natives — De  Keyser,  who  is  accused  of 
taking  a  man  prisoner  and  practically  roasting  him  on  the 
stack-pipe  of  the  boat  as  he  is  going  down  the  river.  There 
was  not  only  that,  but  the  imputation  of  habitually  flogging 
women  at  this  place.  These  odious  and  appalling  accusa- 
tions, the  echo  of  which  follows  a  man  through  his  whole  life, 
are  made  against  him,  and  made  against  him  by  whom?  By 
a  man  who  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  Congo  State  itself, 
who,  in  the  year  iSgy,  as  I  have  shown,  made  himself  the 
defender  of  the  administration  of  the  Congo  State,  and  de- 
clared in  an  article  which  was  put  in  the  interview  which  he 
had  with  UEtoile  Beige,  that  there  was  no  foundation  what- 
ever for  the  accusations  which  had  been  made  against  the 
Belgian  officers,  and  he  was  able  to  say  so  because  he  knew 
the  truth.  He  attacked  Captain  Salusbury  and  disposed  of 
that.  This  man,  who  in  1897  was  taking  that  attitude,  who 
afterwards  leaves  the  service  of  the  Congo  State  and  feels 
himself  aggrieved  because  he  has  not  been  so  highly  paid, 
because  he  has  not  had  such  distinction  conferred  upon  him 
as  others  have  had  conferred, — he,  seven  years  afterwards, 
enters  into  this — is  it  too  much  to  call  it  a  conspiracy  ? 
They  are  grave  accusations,  accusations  which,  if  there 
had  been  any  semblance  of  truth  in  them,  or  if  there  had 
been  any  honest  reason  for  their  being  made,  would  have 
l)een  made  long  before  in  different  circumstances  and  in  a 
different  way.  At  the  time  when  they  are  eventually  made, 
they  are  made  in  a  way  which  will  not  do  public  service,  but 


35^         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

will  put  money  in  Captain  Burrows'  pocket  and  into  the  pockets 
of  the  publishers  who  are  joining  with  him  in  publishing.  It 
is  perfectly  impossible  to  misunderstand  the  correspondence 
with  Commandant  Liebrechts.  If  this  had  been  an  honest 
thing,  honestly  done  by  Captain  Burrows  in  the  performance 
of  any  pubhc  duty,  do  you  think  there  would  have  been  a 
going  first  to  a  pubhsher  and  then  a  letter  from  that  pub- 
lisher inviting  the  Belgian  Government  to  consider  what  it 
would  be  worth  their  while  to  pay  for  the  suppression  of  this 
book?  There  is  no  question  as  to  the  meaning  of  that  letter. 
What  do  you  think  was  the  object  of  putting  a  crowd  of 
names  into  the  revise,  some  of  which  afterwards  disappeared? 
Why,  it  was  because  the  object  was  the  illegitimate  object  of 
endeavouring  to  bring  pressure  upon  the  Belgian  Government 
and  to  induce  them  to  pay  money  to  buy  up  this  book.  It 
was  not  for  any  public  object  at  all,  but  because  the  mention 
of  these  names,  showing  that  there  was  a  list  of  persons  for- 
merly or  at  present  in  the  Congo  Company's  service  against 
whom  accusations  might  be  brought,  might  make  it  worth 
the  while  of  the  Belgian  Government  to  prevent  a  great  scan- 
dal by  procuring  the  suppression  of  this  book.  But  the  Congo 
Free  State  or  the  Belgian  Government  was  not  going  to  buy 
up  the  book  in  order  to  suppress  it  or  in  order  to  prevent  its 
publication.  As  one  of  the  witnesses,  Commandant  Liebrechts, 
said,  "  For  the  first  time  we  found  that  we  should  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  deal  with  specific  statements."  It  is  all  very  well  for 
people  to  be  spreading  over  the  world — I  do  not  care  whether 
they  are  in  reports  or  interviews  or  anything  else — general 
statements  with  regard  to  things  that  are  done  in  the  Congo 
Free  State.  Commandant  Liebrechts  says  there  had  been 
complaints :  "I  had  heard  on  more  than  one  occasion  of  com- 
plaints being  made  as  to  conduct  in  the  Congo.  Whenever  it 
was  known,  and  found  out,  it  was  dealt  with  and  it  was  pun- 
ished. These  allegations  about  maladministration  of  the 
Congo  Frae  State  had  been  spread  about  from  time  to  time  by 
interviews,  suggestions,  newspaper  reports,  and  the  like,  but 
here  we  saw  that  there  was  an  opportunity  for  the  men  who 
were  personally  attacked  to  come  and  vindicate  themselves 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  357 

from  the  charges  which  were  made  against  them."  There- 
fore, there  was  no  attempt  to  buy  this  book,  and  the  con- 
spirators were  disappointed  who  had  been  preparing  this 
revise,  and  cramming  it  with  an  enormous  amount  of  ma- 
terial which  it  was  thought  would  frighten  the  Belgian  Gov- 
ernment from  permitting  it  to  be  dealt  with.  I  do  not 
know  what  the  price  might  have  been  which  they  would 
have  asked  for,  but  that  there  was  a  price  they  were  think- 
ing of  you  will  see  in  a  minute  or  two.  What  did  they  expect 
to  get  for  it?  We  do  not  know.  But  we  do  know  this, 
that  there  were  two  principals  in  the  matter,  and  there  was 
by  way  of  being  a  subordinate.  I  speak  of  Mr.  Leigh  as 
a  subordinate.  I  do  not  suggest  in  the  least  that  he  was 
associated  with  the  attempt  that  was  being  made  in  Belgium, 
but  what  we  know  is,  that  he  was  doing  a  minor  part  of  the 
work,  that  the  manuscript  was  said  to  have  been  Captain 
Burrows'  manuscript,  that  the  materials  for  this  book  were 
supposed  to  be  Captain  Burrows'  materials,  and  Captain  Bur- 
rows therefore  was  the  principal  person,  and  Messrs.  Everett 
had  lent  their  name  and  their  work,  and  were  acting  with 
Captain  Burrows,  and  no  doubt  expected  a  very  large  share 
of  the  money  that  would  be  got  from  the  Belgian  Government. 
If  Mr.  Leigh,  in  his  modest  inconspicuous,  and  irresponsible 
position,  was  to  get  ;C5oo  for  helping  in  putting  together 
the  materials  for  this  book,  what  do  you  think  that  Captain 
Burrows  and  Mr.  Everett  thought  that  they  might  be  able  to 
extort  from  the  fear  of  the  Belgian  Government  that  this 
thing  would  go  all  over  the  world  ? 

The  address  to  the  jury  of  Mr.  Crispe,  counsel 
for  the  Defendant  Burrows,  was  often  eloquent, 
always  adroit,  and  showed  great  skill  in  defending  a 
cause  to  which  the  main  defence  had  been  abandoned 
when   the   pleas    of    justification   were   withdrawn. 

Gentlemen  [said  Counsel  for  Everett  &  Co.,  one  of  the  de- 
fendants], apart  from  what  Commandant  Liebrechts  termed 
"moral   damage,"    there   is   no   evidence   of    actual    damage 


35^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

suffered  by  Captain  De  Keyser  in  this  having  come  to  the  know- 
ledge of  Commandant  Liebrechts.  Commandant  Liebrechts 
says  that  he  had  investigated  these  charges  and  found  out 
that  they  were  false.  If  so,  the  repetition  of  them  could 
have  no  effect  upon  his  mind  as  regards  the  complicity  of 
Captain  De  Keyser  in  them,  and  therefore,  so  far  as  that  is 
concerned,  no  damage  could  have  been  suffered  with  reference 
to  Commandant  Liebrechts. 

Those  are  the  facts  on  the  question.  I  now  ask  you  to 
deal  with  the  printer  in  this  case  in  the  most  general  and 
lenient  manner  that  you  can.  He  has,  as  I  told  you  in  open- 
ing, been  compelled  to  accept  the  evidence  given  him  by  the 
man  who  brings  him  the  material.  He  safeguards  himself  to 
an  extent,  or  at  all  events  his  bona  fides  [sic],  he  safeguards  by 
obtaining  the  statement  in  that  agreement  that  these  allega- 
tions are  true,  and  that  there  is  nothing  libellous  in  the  work 
that  he  is  about  to  produce.  Mr.  Everett  has  not  been  able 
to  establish  the  plea  of  justification,  and  if  the  statements,  as 
Captain  De  Keyser  says  now,  in  the  books  are  untrue,  Mr. 
Everett  can  only  express  his  regret  that  he  should  have  ac- 
cepted from  Captain  Burrows,  on  Captain  Burrows'  assurance 
that  they  were  true,  statements  which  were  false,  and  which 
have  led  Mr.  Everett  to  being  made  a  Defendant  in  an  action 
for  libel. 

Gentlemen,  I  ask  you  to  say  that  throughout  Mr.  Everett 
has  believed  in  the  truth  and  the  proof  of  these  allegations; 
that  otherwise  he  would  not  have  published  the  book,  and 
placed  himself  in  such  a  dangerous  and  perilous  condition; 
and  I  ask  you  further  to  say  that  whether  the  Plaintiff  comes 
here  to-day  to  vindicate  and  clear  the  character  of  Captain  De 
Keyser,  or  whether  he  comes  here  to  vindicate  and  clear  the 
character  of  the  Congo  Free  State  administration,  there  was 
no  necessity,  in  order  to  do  that,  to  try  and  blacken  the  char- 
acter of  the  Defendant,  Mr.  Everett. 

Mr.  Justice  Ridley,  in  charging  the  jury,  after  dis- 
posing of  several  minor  matters,  said : 

What  is  the  real  case  here?     The  action  is  brought  by  Cap- 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  359 

tain  De  Keyser  to  clear  his  character  against  libels  which  have 
been  published.  I  do  not  wish  to  use  epithets  in  a  case  like 
this,  but  they  are  certainly  libels  of  a  most  serious  character. 
It  is  charged  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  abominable  outrages 
against  the  natives,  against  men  and  women  who  were  under 
his  government,  a  thing  which  is  of  an  atrocious  character, 
enough  to  blacken  the  good  name  of  any  one  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  That  is  what  he  came  here  about ;  he  came  to  say  that 
this  was  a  libellous  statement,  to  say  that  it  was  untrue,  and 
to  ask  for  a  verdict  from  you.  The  answer  of  the  Defendants 
is  that  it  was  true.  That  has  remained  their  answer  until 
yesterday  morning,  when  it  ceased  to  be  their  answer. 

We  have  been  listening  this  afternoon  to  statements  made 
by  Counsel,  in  which  it  appears  that  they  complain  because 
they  cannot  cross-examine,  or  they  cannot  examine,  or  they 
cannot  do  something  or  other.  It  seems  to  me  that,  upon  the 
other  hand,  it  is  the  Plaintiff  who  has  the  right  of  complaint, 
that  he  has  been  brought  here  with  such  a  plea  on  the  Record 
until  the  very  last  minute.  That  is  very  late,  is  it  not?  It 
is  absolutely  untrue  that  he  ever  did  any  one  of  those  things. 
There  is  not  one  tittle  of  evidence  to  that  effect,  and  nobody 
dare  say  so. 

It  appears  that  Captain  Burrows,  who  is  one  of  the  Defend- 
ants, was  out  in  the  Congo  at  an  earlier  year.  I  am  not  sure 
when;  he  returned  to  Europe  on  November  20,  1897.  He 
was  at  that  time  a  supporter  of  the  Government  in  respect  of 
the  charges  made  by  a  person  named  Salusbury.  In  i8g8  he 
brought  out  another  book,  called  "The  Land  of  the  Pigmies," 
against  which  I  have  nothing  to  say.  It  contained  nothing  at 
all  in  the  shape  of  a  charge  against  anybody  in  respect  of  this 
matter.  He  then  went  back  again  to  the  Congo,  but  he  re- 
turned in  1 90 1,  and  then  commenced  a  correspondence  be- 
tween him  and  Commandant  Liebrechts.  There  is  an  earlier 
letter  in  which  he  states  that  he  is  proposing  to  bring  out 
another  book.  Later  on  there  is  correspondence  as  to  which 
I  agree,  that  it  shows  that  he  and  the  Belgian  Government 
jjarted  on  terms  not  of  dismissal  of  him,  but  upon  a  proposal 
being  made  that  if  he  liked  to  place  himself  at  their  disposal 


360  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

for  two  years  they  would  pay  him  a  salary,  and  that  he  must 
be  ready  to  accept  any  expedition  on  which  he  was  asked  to 
go.  He  declined  that  service.  That  was  at  the  end  of  1901. 
In  the  following  year  he  published  certain  articles  in  the 
Wide  World.  They  contained  nothing  at  all  about  cruelties, 
as  I  understand,  although  the}-  contained  articles  about  the 
administration  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  That  was  in  the 
year  1902;  but  when  we  get  to  the  autumn  of  1902  a  new 
state  of  things  commences,  because  up  to  that  time  you  will 
see  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  he  had  taken  up  a  hostile 
position  against  either  the  administration  of  the  Congo  Free 
State  or  against  any  one  who  had  been  concerned  in  it. 
But  on  the  17th  November  things  begin  to  assume  a  some- 
what different  complexion.  There  is  the  Agreement  of  the  1 7th 
November,  1902,  made  between  Captain  Burrows  and  Messrs. 
Everett  &  Co.,  under  which  the  author  warrants  that  the 
work  is  to  be  an  original  work.  He  names  the  work  then 
as  The  Congo  Free  State.  The  publishers  agree  to  pay  him 
the  sum  of  ;^25o  on  account,  and  a  royalty  of  15  per  cent. 
On  the  24th  November,  when  that  agreement  was  in  force,  a 
letter  was  written  by  Messrs.  Everett  &  Co.  to  Commandant 
Liebrechts.  Now  the  point  of  this  letter  is:  Was  the  action 
of  the  Defendants  bona  fide  in  this  matter  ?  Are  they  persons 
who  have  unwittingly  fallen  into  a  false  statement,  or  have 
they  done  a  thing  with  a  purpose  regardless  of  the  conse- 
quences? Have  they  done  the  thing  which  is  what  we  com- 
monly call  blackmail,  or  forcing  people  to  pay  over  money 
unless  they  wish  to  have  a  foul  charge  made  against  them? 

These  are  the  letters  which  bear  upon  this  matter.  The 
first  is  November  24th:  "We  have  recently  concluded  a  con- 
tract with  Captain  Guy  Burrows,  well  known  to  the  Eng- 
lish public  as  having  served  some  years  in  the  service  of 
the  Congo  Free  State,  to  publish  an  important  work  on  the 
Congo  Free  State.  The  information  contained  in  the  book  is 
of  such  a  startling  character,  and  contains  so  many  revela- 
tions concerning  the  administration  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
by  Belgium,  that  we  thought  it  well  to  advise  you  of  its  pub- 
lication beforehand,  and  at  the  same  time  to  inquire  if  we 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  361 

may  have  the  honour  of  offering  you  the  Belgian  rights  for 
publication  in  your  country."  That  may  mean  nothing  but 
what  it  says,  but  it  may  have  a  sinister  meaning  in  it.  It 
may  be  that  the  fact  that  ' '  the  information  contained  in  the 
book  is  of  such  a  startling  character,  and  contains  so  many 
revelations  concerning  the  administration  of  the  Congo  Free 
State,"  that  the  point  which  is  meant  to  betaken  by  those  to 
whom  it  is  written  is :  Is  it  worth  your  while  to  buy  it  up  and 
stop  it;  not  to  publish  it,  but  to  have  the  right  of  publica- 
tion so  as  to  prevent  it  from  being  published  in  the  ordinary 
way?  Is  that  the  meaning  of  the  letter,  or  is  it  merely  a 
bona  fide  offer  of  trying  to  push  a  book  which  is  supposed  and 
intended  to  be  innocent,  and  to  get  people  to  push  the  sale 
of  it?  If  that  was  the  object,  one  is  rather  at  a  loss  to  under- 
stand how  it  could  be  to  their  interest  to  publish  revelations 
concerning  the  administration  of  the  Congo  Free  State  by 
themselves,  and,  of  course,  contrary  to  the  good  faith  and  to 
the  proper  administration  of  the  Government.  That  it  might 
be  to  their  interest  to  buy  it  up,  and  refuse  to  publish  it,  I  can 
understand;  the  other  part  I  have  a  difficulty  in  following. 
It  states:  "We  are  arranging  for  a  simultaneous  publication 
in  Italy,  Germany,  France,  Norway,  Sweden,  and  the  United 
States  of  America."  I  suppose  this  could  not  also  be  bought 
up  through  some  agents  of  the  Government  of  Belgium,  but 
if  so,  it  would  be  a  larger  sum  to  come  to  the  publishers. 
That  is  the  letter  of  the  24th.  On  the  27th,  by  the  same 
people  is  sent  to  the  paper  in  Brussels  an  "advance  notice  of 
the  enclosed  valuable  work."  That  is  the  first  issue  which 
contains  a  list  of  the  persons  who  are  implicated  in  the  atroci- 
ties. It  does  not  contain  the  chapter  which  is  the  subject  of 
this  libel,  but  it  contains  a  list  of  Belgian  officers  and  officials 
responsible  for  the  atrocities  mentioned  in  this  book.  That 
is  sent  to  the  leading  paper  in  Belgium.  With  what  object? 
Do  you  think  it  possible  that  they  thought  that  by  some  means 
or  other  it  would  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Government 
through  the  Press,  or  through  some  other  means,  that  there 
was  something  which  it  would  be  worth  their  buying? 

Now  came  Mr.   Bigwood.      The  result  upon  the  Belgian 


362  Stor}^  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Government  was  not  that  they  made  an  offer;  they  made 
nothing  of  the  sort.  They  said,  We  will  find  out  what  this  is ; 
and  they  sent  Mr.  Bigwood  over,  whose  evidence  we  heard 
yesterday,  and  who  says  that  he  then  saw  and  took  back  with 
him  not  only  the  first  issue,  which  is  the  one  I  have  just  been 
mentioning  as  containing  the  names  of  the  officers,  but  that 
he  also  saw  upon  the  table  the  second  issue,  which  is  now  put 
forward  as  the  first  of  the  two  libels  in  the  case,  but  he  did 
not  take  it  with  him.  It  was  sent  upon  the  30th  December, 
as  you  know.  Now,  an  important  thing  upon  this  part  of 
the  case  seems  to  me  to  be  the  document  of  the  17th  Decem- 
ber. That  is,  you  see,  between  the  two  dates;  it  is  after  the 
24th  and  the  27th  November,  and  it  is  about  the  time  of  the 
visit  of  Mr.  Bigwood,  or  just  after  he  had  left.  Mr.  Bigwood 
had  seen  on  the  table  the  second  issue,  but  he  had  not  taken  it; 
it  was  not  sent  until  the  30th  December.  In  the  interval  we 
have  got  a  document  which  is  signed  by  Captain  Burrows,  and 
which  says :  "  I  hereby  agree  to  pay  to  Mr.  John  George  Leigh  " 
(who  is  the  man  whose  signature  appears  in  the  introduction) , 
"the  sum  of  ;£5oo  if  and  when  my  publishers,  Messrs.  Everett 
&  Co.,  receive  the  amount  which  may  be  paid  by  the  Belgian 
Government."  What  for,  do  you  think,  gentlemen?  You 
will  say,  of  course,  for  the  publication  of  the  book.  But  it 
is  not  so:  it  is  for  the  non-publication  of  the  book.  There- 
fore he  is  to  get  ;^5oo,  which  is  to  be  paid  by  the  Belgian 
Government  for  not  publishing  the  book;  that  is  to  say,  for 
suppressing  it.  Nothing  could  be  plainer.  "If  the  Belgian 
Government  think  it  worth  their  while  to  buy  it  up,  so  that 
it  should  not  be  published,  I  will  pay  you  £s°'^-"  I^  is  under 
his  own  hand  and  signature,  and  I  cannot  see  what  the  answer 
to  it  is.  To  my  mind  it  is  absolutely  conclusive.  I  do  not 
know  whether  you  will  consider  that  the  meaning  of  the  first 
letter  is  not  that  the  book  should  be  published  broadcast  but 
that  the  rights  of  publishing  it  should  be  bought  up  with  the 
view  of  stopping  its  being  published  broadcast.  He  goes  on: 
"  For  the  non-publication  of  the  manuscripts  written  by  myself 
and  him,  entitled  'The  Curse  of  Central  Africa.'  In  case  the 
book  is  published,  I  agree  to  pay  Mr.  Leigh  one-third  of  the 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  363 

profits  accruing  from  such  publication  as  per  agreement  with 
the  said  publisher."  That,  of  course,  goes  for  nothing.  It  is 
the  first  part,  and  it  appears  to  me  to  be  clear  upon  that,  that 
the  meaning  of  such  words  must  be  that  the  object  was  not  to 
get  the  Belgian  Government  not  to  publish,  but  to  prevent  the 
publication.  Now,  if  so,  of  course  I  am  perfectly  aware  that 
that  is  not  the  point  of  the  case,  but  you  cannot  keep  out  of 
your  mind  in  a  case  of  this  kind  what  has  been  the  conduct 
of  those  who  are  responsible  for  the  libels  which  have  been 
published.  Is  it  a  case  in  which  they  have  done  the  thing 
with  a  bona  fide  intention  to  produce  and  to  bring  to  light,  and 
to  make  to  cease  outrages  and  atrocities  which  have  been  com- 
mitted in  any  part  of  the  world,  or  is  it,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
make  a  profit  out  of  something  which  has  been  brought  to 
their  knowledge  to  the  detriment  of  other  people?  If  you 
think  that  this  was  done  to  get  a  profit  by  forcing  the  Belgian 
Government  to  buy  their  silence,  it  would  appear  to  me  that 
you  would  deal  with  the  matter  upon  a  different  footing  to 
that  on  which  you  would  be  willing  to  deal  with  it  if  you 
thought  that  the  Defendants,  from  beginning  to  end,  had  done 
their  best  to  alleviate  the  mischief  which  their  published  state- 
ments might  have  unfortunately  brought  about. 

You  must  also,  I  think,  look  at  the  conduct  of  those  who 
were  guilty  of  having  published  this  libel.  Have  they  done  the 
best  they  could  to  alleviate  the  consequences,  or  have  thej^ 
on  the  other  hand,  maintained  the  fact  that  it  was  true  until 
almost  the  eleventh  hour;  and  have  they  also,  or  have  they 
not,  whilst  this  matter  has  been  going  on,  been  actuated  by 
other  motives,  not  merely  the  motive  of  bringing  to  light  in 
the  public  interest  a  scandal  that  was  going  on,  but  by  the  idea 
that  out  of  this  business  they  would  make  some  ugly  profit  for 
themselves  ? 

The  jury  retired  at  3.22  o'clock.  In  ten  minutes 
it  returned  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiff,  Captain  De 
Keyser,  awarding  him  ;)^5oo  damages  and  costs.  Sir 
Edward  Clarke,  plaintiff's  counsel,  having  moved  the 
Court  to  make  the  preliminary  injunction  forbidding 


364  Story  o(  the  Congo  Free  State 

publication  of  the  book  perpetual,  defendant's  coun- 
sel gave  expression  to  the  thought  that  if  the  Court 
complied,  it  would  be  a  "very  hard  and  cruel  pro- 
ceeding." In  replying  to  this  observation.  Sir 
Edward  Clarke  said: 

I  do  not  know  that  the  interference  with  the  business  of 
persons  who  publish  libels  like  this  is  a  public  misfortune ;  but 
it  would  be  very  unfortunate  indeed  if  after  the  Jury  have 
found  a  verdict  in  my  favour  upon  this  matter,  and  awarded 
substantial  damages,  that  the  Defendant  should  be  free  from 
the  Injunction  which  has  gone  on  for  the  last  year.  I  do  not 
ask  your  Lordship  to  vary  the  Injunction,  but  I  ask  your 
Lordship  that  the  Injunction  which  lasted  while  this  matter 
was  in  dispute  shall  be  made  perpetual. 

The  terms  of  the  Injunction  which  was  granted  by  Mr.  Jus- 
tice Bigham  are  these:  "Ordered  that  the  Defendants,  their 
servants  and  agents  and  each  and  every  of  them  be  restrained 
and  an  Injunction  be  granted  restraining  the  Defendants,  their 
servants  and  agents,  and  each  and  every  of  them,  from  print- 
ing or  selling  or  otherwise  distributing  a  book  entitled  '  The 
Curse  of  South  Africa  '  under  that  or  any  other  title,  or  any 
portion  of  the  said  book  under  that  title  or  any  other  title." 
I  submit  that  I  am  at  least  entitled  to  be  continued  in  the  pro- 
tection which  existed  while  the  action  was  pending. 

I  was  so  protected  when  it  was  uncertain  whether  I  had 
sustained  any  grievance  or  not.  Now  it  has  been  established, 
and  I  have  recovered  substantial  damages  for  that  grievance, 
I  surely  am  entitled  to  a  continuation  of  that  protection. 

Mr.  Justice  Ridley:   I  shall  make  it  perpetual. 

Thereupon  counsel  for  defendants  in  the  remaining 
cases  of  Chaltin  versus  Captain  Burrows  and  Everett 
&  Co.,  and  Dubreucq  versus  the  same,  agreed  to  sub- 
mit to  a  verdict  in  favour  of  the  plaintiffs  for  ;^5o 
damages  and  costs.     The  jury  returned  verdicts  for 


The  Nemesis  of  Libel  365 

this  sum,  and  the  Court  made  perpetual  the  injunc- 
tion against  the  pubhcation  of  the  book. 

So  resulted  the  first  opportunity  Belgian  officers  in 
the  service  of  the  Congo  Free  State  have  had  to 
vindicate  their  characters  during  the  long  campaign 
which  certain  persons  have,  from  varying  motives, 
waged  against  the  youngest  and  most  progressive 
State  in  Africa. 


CHAPTER  XXX 
THE  CONGO  CAMPAIGN  IN  ENGLAND 

THE  English  are  an  admirable  people,  who  have 
excelled  in  every  department  of  human  effort ; 
but  the  evidence  of  the  more  critical  among 
them,  with  whom  love  of  fair  play  counts  for  as 
Some  much  as  pride  of  race,  has  never  failed  to 

EngUsh  reveal  in  the  national  character  (as  of 
^^^*^*  course  in  the  character  of  every  nation)  a 
goodly  number  of  weak  spots  whereat  the  critic  and 
the  wit  may  profitably  direct  their  shafts.  John 
Biill,  the  trader,  is  a  keen-eyed,  hard-headed  bar- 
gainer. Good;  it  behoves  every  merchant  to  be  no 
less.  He  regards  the  whole  world  as  his  farm  by 
right  divine,  and  resents  his  exclusion  from  any 
part  of  it.  When  his  remonstrance  is  met  by 
counter-remonstrance,  he  points  to  his  home  markets 
and  his  colonies,  and  emphasises  the  fact  that  these 
British  markets  are  open  (long  after  his  own  trade 
has  been  firmly  established  therein)  to  the  traders 
of  the  world. 

But  it  is  in  his  ultra-sentimental  mood  that  John 
Bull  is  seen  at  his  worst.  Has  there  been  a  conflict 
between  some  semi-barbarous  tribes  in  that  seething 
cauldron  of  discontent,  the  Balkans,  and  the  Sul- 
tan's troops  have  thrashed   them  indiscriminately 

366 


o 

CO 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  England       367 

and  dispersed  them,  John  Bull,  or  at  least  that  part 
of  him  which  wears  white  ties  and  is  described  as 
"reverend,"  rushes  off  to  Exeter  Hall  and  demands 
the  prayers  of  the  churches  and  the  forces  of  his 
Government  for  the  suppression  of  the  inhuman 
atrocities  which  he  denounces.  (Incidentally,  but 
in  unmistakable  terms,  he  at  the  same  time  calls 
the  attention  of  his  audience  to  the  joyful  fact  that 
it  is  their  duty  and  privilege  to  assist  in  this  good 
work  by  giving  liberally  of  their  mone3^)  Of  course 
it  is  but  a  section  of  the  English  people  which  ap- 
proves and  supports  this  sort  of  thing,  and  a  still 
smaller  section  that  exploits  it.  But  in  a  country 
politically  constituted  as  England  is,  where  the 
suffrage  is  almost  universal,  it  is  sufficiently  large 
and  influential  to  influence  from  time  to  time  the 
conduct  of  the  British  Government.  This  is  more 
particularly  the  case  where  the  interests  of  the 
pseudo-humanitarians  and  those  of  the  traders 
happen  to  coincide.  On  such  occasions,  fortunately 
somewhat  rare,  the  spectacle  of  Cant  and  Commerce 
in  alliance  is  enough  to  bring  a  smile  to  the  face  of 
a  sphinx. 

Protestant  missionaries  of  various  sects,  in  rivalry 
with  each  other,  but  often  alike  in  being  envious  of 
the  superior  results  obtained  by  Roman 
Catholic  missionaries  in  the  Congo  Free  ^^ance^ 
State,  denounce  the  Congo  Government  as 
a  gang  of  barbarous  extortioners,  oppressors,  mur- 
derers. A  small  but  active  set  of  Liverpool  mer- 
chants, dismayed  at  finding  that  what  twenty  years 
ago  they  regarded  as  worthless  has,  under  judicious 


368  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Belgian  administration,  become  a  valuable  asset,  and 
some  of  whom  appear  willing  to  resort  to  any  means 
by  which  they  may  at  least  be  enabled  to  share  the 
prize,  join  their  forces  to  those  of  the  missionaries. 
Lies  fall  as  thickly  as  leaves  in  Vallombrosa.  No 
sooner  is  one  mendacious  story  refuted  than  ten 
others  take  its  place.  The  Congo  campaign  mul- 
tiplies its  adherents,  it  gathers  force  daily,  its  voice 
becomes  more  and  more  thunderous,  until  at  last  it 
invades  the  British  House  of  Commons  and  moves 
a  British  minister  to  write  a  puerile  dispatch  to  the 
Great  Powers,  which  the  Great  Powers,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  common-sense,  x^olitely  ignore.  Onl\7- 
up  to  a  certain  point  does  Baron  Munchausen  tri- 
umph.    Verb.  sap. 

What  magnificent  material  for  the  mouthings  of 
certain  English  ultra -humanitarians  would  be  the 
Why  is  lynching  of  Negroes  in  our  own  Southern 
John  Bull  States!  The  jail -breakings,  the  hangings^ 
Silent?  shootings,  and  burnings — could  more  effec- 
tive subjects  for  stereopticon  slides  and  the  perfervid 
oratory  of  paid  lecturers  be  devised?  And  all  true 
and  ready  to  hand,  needing  neither  lies  nor  distor- 
tions! Alas!  nothing  can  be  made  out  of  that  cam- 
paign. It  will  not  pay  to  call  our  country  to  account 
for  its  neglect  or  failure  to  suppress  these  things. 
The  United  States  own  a  fleet  which,  if  not  as  strong 
as  it  should  be,  is  sufficiently  powerful  to  inspire 
respect;  and  our  President  can  at  any  time  call  up 
an  army  of  a  million  citizen  soldiers,  volunteers  of 
proved  valour.  With  the  Congo  Free  State  this  is 
not  t-he  case.     Caution  was  ever  a  prominent  charac- 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  England       369 

tens  tic  of  John  Bull,  and  he  has  carefully  noted  that 
fact.  Neutral  little  Belgium  may  safely  be  bullied, 
her  King  libelled,  and  his  enterprise  misrepresented 
and  held  up  to  the  scorn  of  an  undiscriminating 
world,  too  busy  to  undertake  a  careful  analysis  of 
motives  or  even  to  distinguish  between  the  true  and 
the  false. 

Judicial  consideration  of  the  English  campaign 
against  the  Congo,  naturally  a  difficult  task,  is  ren- 
dered doubly  so  by  the  general  suppression  of  ma- 
terial evidence  favourable  to  that  State.  From 
motives  best  known  to  their  proprietors,,  one  or  two 
important  London  newspapers,  ever  ready  to  afford 
space  for  an  attack  upon  the  Congo  Government, 
however  violent  or  by  whomsoever  made,  frequently 
decline  to  publish  replies  thereto.  Indeed,  the  miore 
complete  the  refutation,  and  the  greater  the  author- 
ity of  the  writer,  the  less  chance  of  its  acceptance  for 
publication  in  these  newspapers.  Upon  several  oc- 
casions has  Major  Harrison  been  refused  space  for  his 
temperate  letters  to  the  Morning  Post,  and  the  Daily 
News,  the  principal  support  of  the  Aborigines  Pro- 
tection Society,  is  avowedly  against  the  continued 
existence  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  A  complete 
answer  to  Mr.  Roger  Casement's  Report,  prepared 
by  the  Congo  Government,  was  unanimously  rejected 
by  London  editors.  This  most  unjust  partisanship 
extends  even  to  English  press  reports  of  proceed- 
ings in  the  House  of  Commons,  of  which  one  might 
reasonably  expect  to  find  in  English  journals  a  com- 
plete record;  or  where  the  exigencies  of  space  ne- 
cessitate condensation,  that  at  least   that  editorial 


370  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

operation  should  be  performed  without  bias.     That 
expectation  meets  with  disappointment. 

On  June  9,  1904,  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  with  a  fine 
show  of  virtue  which  has  not  always  characterised 
his  conduct,  delivered  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons wherein  he  assumes  the  truth  of  the  various 
libels  upon  the  Congo  Government  prepared  by  mis- 
sionaries, merchants,  and  dismissed  employees.  That 
speech,  and  the  speeches  of  such  other  members  of 
the  British  House  of  Commons  as  for  various  reasons 
have  been  induced  to  follow  a  similar  course,  have 
been  reported  in  extenso,  while  the  speech  of  Mr. 
John  Campbell,  member  for  South  Armagh,  has  not 
so  much  as  been  referred  to.  Mr.  Campbell  derided 
the  Congophobes'  plea  that  they  have  at  heart  only 
the  interests  of  humanity. 

The  gold  [he  remarked]  of  that  fine  phrase  is  alloyed  with 
other  arguments.  Commercial  considerations  have  also  their 
weight.  Some  speakers  began  by  talking  of  humanity  and 
ended  with  commerce.  Others  began  with  commerce  and 
ended  with  humanity.  One  honourable  member  had  thrown 
overboard  the  humanitarian  theme  and  flatly  talked  business. 
But,  in  spite  of  all  the  ornamental  flowers  of  philanthropy, 
the  groundwork  of  all  these  speeches  is — commerce.  The 
true  motive  which  prompts  the  Anti-Congo  campaign,  con- 
ducted with  such  vigour  in  this  country  and  within  these 
walls,  was  exposed  in  a  few  words  by  Stanley  when  he  said : 
' '  The  sentiment  that  inspires  tlie  charges  against  tJie  Congo  is 
jealousy.  The  Congo  is  succeeding  better  than  any  other  State 
in  Africa." 

One  would  suppose  that  sentiments  such  as  these, 
supported  by  the  authority  of  Stanley,  would  at 
least  be  as  worthy  of  a  few  lines  in  an  English  news- 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  England       371 

paper  as  the  vague  charges  of  cruelty  alleged  by 
some  missionaries  based  upon  what  they  have  been 
told  that  somebody  else  has  heard,  etc.  But,  no !  such 
references  are  rigidly  suppressed  in  a  large  section  of 
the  English  press,  just  as  much  of  Mr.  Casement's  Re- 
port that  is  favourable  to  the  Congo  Government  has 
been  suppressed.' 

'  The  following  letter,  addressed  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Congo  Re- 
form Association,  Liverpool,  on  December  8,  1904,  by  the  editor  of 
the  Catholic  Herald  (London),  indicates  that  certain  British  journals 
are  sincerely  seeking  to  expose  the  truth  concerning  the  Congo  and  the 
motives  underlying  the  campaign  against  the  Free  State  in  England. 
The  writer  of  the  letter  is  the  publisher  of  the  thirty-odd  leading 
Catholic  papers  in  the  United  Kingdom.  As  a  Member  of  Parliament, 
and  as  an  editor,  his  attitude  towards  public  questions  has  always  been 
conscientious  and  fearless. 

"Sir, — The  following  matters  so  intimately  concern  your  veracity, 
and,  therefore,  deeply  concern  the  public,  in  connection  with,  your 
anti-Congo  campaign  and  your  Congo  Reform  Society,  that  I  draw 
your  attention  to  the  fact  that  this  letter  will  be  printed  in  full  in  the 
Catholic  Herald  of  next  week,  and  will  also  be  sent  out  broadcast  to 
the  newspapers  of  this  country,  so  that  you  may  have  a  full  opportunity 
of  defending  yourself  from  the  most  serious  charges  made  therein. 

"On  the  24th  of  November  last,  in  defending  an  abusive  attack  made 
by  the  London  Daily  News  on  the  Belgian  people,  in  which  it  referred 
to  them  as  'barbarians,'  you  made  a  statement  to  the  effect  that  fifteen 
Congo  officials  were  then  in  prison  at  Boma  for  the  grossest  outrages 
upon  natives,  and  that  ten  more  were  awaiting  their  trial. 

"In  reply  to  a  communication  sent  to  a  member  of  the  Belgian 
House  of  Representatives,  a  statement  is  made  by  the  Belgian  author- 
ities, that  only  two  officials  are  in  prison  in  Boma.  This  statement 
was  forwarded  to  the  Daily  News,  which  has  lent  itself  to  the  disgrace- 
ful and  lying  campaign  against  the  Congo,  but,  although  the  editor 
has  been  several  times  requested  to  publish  it,  he  has  up  till  now  de- 
clined to  do  so. 

"I,  therefore,  draw  your  attention  to  this  emphatic  contradiction  of 
your  story,  and,  having  every  confidence  in  the  honesty  and  truthful- 
ness of  the  statement  made  by  responsible  gentlemen  in  Brussels,  state 
that  your  assertion  can  only  be  treated  as  a  gross  invention,  quite  on 
a  par  with  the  other  methods  of  your  anti-Congo  campaign. 

"But  this  is  not  the  most  serious  matter.     On  the  following  point, 


372  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Just  as  this  book  is  going  to  press  particulars  come 
to  hand  of  an  incident  which  throws  a  strong  Ught 

I  charge  you  with  putting  forward  a  statement  in  the  Daily  News,  with 
reference  to  the  Congo  Reform  Society,  which  you  knew  to  be  lontrue, 
for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  and  misleading  the  public  of  this  country. 
It  was  stated  in  a  letter  which  appeared  in  the  Daily  News  on  Novem- 
ber 25th,  that  Liverpool  shippers  and  merchants  were  aiding  the  Congo 
Reform  Society,  and  financing  it.  On  the  29th  November  a  letter 
appeared  from  you  in  the  Daily  News,  in  which  you  denied  this,  and 
called  upon  the  writer  to  offer  an  apology  for  his  statement.  You 
proceeded  to  assert  that  you  had  enclosed  (for  the  private  information 
of  the  Editor  of  the  Daily  News)  a  list  of  the  subscribers  to  the  Congo 
Reform  Society,  and  the  editor  supported  your  statement  by  the 
assertion  that  'the  list  of  donors  and  subscribers  supplied  does  not 
contain  the  names  of  any  British  merchants  or  shippers.' 

' '  The  clear  purport  of  your  letter  was  to  make  it  out  that  there  was 
no  co-operation  between  the  Liverpool  shippers  and  merchants  and 
this  so-called  Reform  Society,  which  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a 
bogus  name  adopted  to  cover  the  campaign  of  falsehood  and  calumny 
which  you  and  your  friends  have  entered  upon. 

"On  November  30th  the  following  statement  was  published  in  the 
Daily  News  in  answer  to  your  denial : — '  With  reference  to  the  Liverpool 
merchants  I  have  not  seen  the  "private  list"  that  he  (Mr.  Morel)  for- 
wards to  you.  I  cannot  tell  whether  it  contains  the  names  of  all  the 
subscribers  to  the  Congo  Reform  Society,  but  I  cannot  accept  the 
denial  of  the  secretary  with  reference  to  the  Liverpool  merchants,  in 
view  of  the  candid  admission  of  Mr.  Fox  Bourne  that  some  of  the  mer- 
chants in  Liverpool  are  working  with  the  Society,  and  his  further  ad- 
mission that  they  had  helped  to  finance  it.  I  believe  Mr.  Fox  Bourne's 
statement,  and  if  an  apology  is  required  for  perversion  of  the  facts,  the 
secretary  of  the  Congo  Reform  Society  must  make  that  apology. ' 

"To  that  emphatic  disproval  of  your  statement,  you  have  up  till 
now  made  no  reply.  In  fact  you  cannot  deny  Mr.  Fox  Bourne's  honest 
admission,  which  has  already  appeared  in  our  columns,  and  of  which 
evidently  you  were  entirely  ignorant  at  the  time  you  attempted  to 
throw  dust  into  the  eyes  of  the  readers  of  the  Daily  News  by  your 
untruthful  denial. 

"Now,  one  of  two  things :  either  you  are  in  a  position  to  free  yourself 
from  this  charge  of  deception  and  untruthful  statement  put  forward 
for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the  public,  or  you  are  not.  If  you  are  in 
a  position  to  do  so,  come  forward  immediately,  in  the  interests  of  the 
Congo  Reform  Society,  and  of  yovu-self  as  its  secretary.  If  you  are  not 
in  a  position  to  disprove  this  statement  and  to  substantiate  your  words, 
you  stand  convicted  of  flagrant  deception  and  falsehood  on  a  most 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  England       373 

upon  the  methods  adopted  by  the  enemies  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  in  maniifacturing  evidence  against 

important  public  matter,  and  the  people  of  this  country  will  know  how 
to  judge  a  person,  or  a  society,  which  descends  to  such  methods  for  the 
purpose  of  bolstering  up  selfish  and  disgraceful  designs. 

"At  the  very  moment  that  you  were  writing  this  denial  in  the  col- 
umns of  the  Daily  News,  you  were  in  treaty  with  a  former  Congo  offi- 
cial, and  bribing  him  for  the  purpose  of  giving  evidence  against  the 
Congo  State,  and  as  a  witness  to  the  document  that  passed  between 
you,  you  called  in  Mr.  John  Holt,  merchant,  8i,  Dale  Street,  Liverpool, 
who  was  associated  with  you  in  this  attempt  to  purchase  testimony, 
and  who  actually  paid,  at  the  Exchange  Hotel,  Liverpool,  on  the  21st 
November  last,  a  sum  of  £,j^o  to  Mr.  Benedetti,  the  Congo  ex-official 
referred  to,  and  yet  you  have  the  impudence  and  the  hardihood  to 
assert  that  the  Liverpool  shippers  and  Liverpool  merchants  are  not 
associated  with  the  Congo  Reform  Society! 

"Nor  are  these  all  the  inventions,  perversions,  and  misrepresenta- 
tions which  can  be  proved  against  you  in  connection  with  this  move- 
ment. 

"The  book  that  you  have  just  written  and  published  is  packed  with 
such  lies  and  suppressions  of  truth.  You  print  a  travesty  of  the  case 
of  the  man  Stokes,  who  was  executed  in  the  Congo,  and  you  say  that 
the  charge  against  him  was  'of  trading  with  natives,'  whereas,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  he  was  proved  to  have  supplied  the  cruel  and  barbarous 
Arab  slave  raiders  of  the  Congo,  who  have  been  put  down  by  the  Congo 
Government,  with  guns  and  ammunition  for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
on  their  nefarious  work. 

"These  slave  raiders  evidently  receive  your  warm  sympathy,  and 
the  man  Stokes,  who  helped  them  to  carry  on  their  trade,  is  held  up  by 
you  as  a  martyr!  Yet  you  dare  to  appear  before  the  people  of  this 
country  as  a  friend  of  the  natives  of  the  Congo,  and  your  present  cam- 
paign is  ostensibly  carried  on  for  the  amelioration  of  their  condition! 

"Again,  you  have  ventured  to  make  a  most  infamous  charge  against 
Catholic  missionaries  in  the  Congo.  In  a  letter  to  the  Times  you  said 
that  '  they  dared  not  state  in  public  what  they  have  said  in  private. ' 
In  other  words,  you  accuse  them  of  double  dealing  of  the  basest  char- 
acter, like  Mr.  Fox  Bourne,  who  says,  'they  ofFcr  religion  to  the  natives 
only  as  a  bribe,  or  to  terrorise  them  into  further  enslavement.' 

"You  have  never  produced  a  single  iota  of  evidence  in  support  of  this 
statement  against  the  CathoHc  missionaries,  who  are  doing  such  splen- 
did work  in  the  Congo  territory.  We  characterise  the  statement  as  a 
gross  and  palpable  invention,  but,  in  that  respect,  it  has  only  been  on 
a  par  with  the  general  policy  of  yourself  and  the  so-called  'Congo 
Reform  Society'  in  connection  with  these  matters. 


374  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

it.     The  paid  officers  of  the  Congo  Reform  Associa- 
tion  in  Liverpool,   the  Aborigines'   Protection   So- 

"It  has  also  been  asserted  by  the  secretary  of  the  Aborigines'  Pro- 
tection Society — which  has  been  mainly  responsible,  with  yourself  and 
the  Liverpool  shippers  and  merchants,  for  working  up  this  campaign 
of  calumny — that  the  clerical  party  in  Belgium  is  supporting  the  King 
in  his  Congo  policy,  irrespective  of  any  atrocities  that  may  be  com- 
mitted, because  the  King  has  agreed  to  siipport  them  in  Belgium.  This 
is  not  only  a  libel  on  Belgian  Catholics  and  the  Belgian  people — who 
have  been  insolently  referred  to  by  the  Daily  News  as  'barbarians' — - 
but  is  amply  disproved  by  the  fact  that  the  most  recent  exposure  of 
your  tactics,  and  the  tactics  of  your  society,  has  been  made  in  the 
columns  of  the  well-known  anti-clerical  paper,  The  Independance 
Beige,  of  Brussels,  which  has  published  the  disclosures  with  reference 
to  your  bribing  of  a  Congo  official  to  secure  evidence  from  him,  and 
has  amply  exposed,  on  many  occasions,  the  selfish  and  dishonest 
character  of  this  anti-Congo  campaign. 

"You  have  printed  the  grossest  inventions  with  reference  to  the 
treatment  of  British  natives  in  Congo  territory.  You  have  said  that 
at  Lagos,  and  in  the  surrounding  district,  if  the  word  'Congo'  is  men- 
tioned to  a  native  he  will  make  for  the  bush  if  he  is  on  land,  and  will 
jump  into  the  water  if  he  happens  to  be  on  sea,  in  order  to  escape 
going  to  the  Congo! 

' '  A  full  and  impartial  inquiry  made  by  a  number  of  English  gentle- 
men at  Lagos,  and  the  evidence  of  one  hundred  and  seventy- five 
natives  taken  on  oath,  shows  how  baseless  and  unscrupulous  is  your 
statement.  One  English  gentleman  declares  that  '  in  a  single  week's 
time  he  would  undertake  to  send  two  thousand  natives  to  the  Congo, 
if  the  English  Government  would  permit  their  enrolment ' — the  taxa- 
tion being  so  much  heavier  in  British  territory  than  in  Congo  territory, 
that  natives  have  to  seek  in  the  latter  the  means  of  earning  the  taxa- 
tion which  they  are  compelled  to  pay  to  the  British  administration. 

"Missionaries  of  all  classes,  Catholic  and  non-Catholic,  have 
borne  ample  testimony  to  the  humane  and  civilising  influence  of  the 
Congo  administration.  Englishmen  like  Lord  Mountmorres,  Major 
Harrison,  of  Hull,  Mr.  Grenfell,  Mr.  Bell,  Mr.  Holland,  Mr.  Maguire, 
as  also  Mrs.  French-Sheldon,  Mrs.  Doering,  and  others,  have  borne 
the  most  emphatic  testimony  to  the  lies  and  misrepresentations  that 
have  been  so  sedulously  spread  by  yourself  and  your  friends  with  refer- 
ence to  the  Congo  administration. 

"You  cannot  have  failed  to  notice  that  in  La  Verite  sur  le  Congo  for 
October-November,  1904,  page  3,  you  are  accused  of  actually  having 
faked  certain  photographs  which  appeared  in. your  book — one  on  page 
49,  in  which  certain  natives  are  represented  holding  cvit-off  hands. 


Interior  of  Cathedral,  Baudouinville  (Tanganyika). 


Sisters  of  New  Antwerp  Teaching  Natives  to  Weave. 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  England       375 

ciety,  and  kindred  organisations,  must  find  it  in- 
creasingly  difficult  to    justify  their   existence  when 

The  publication  referred  to  says  that  'the  hands  seem  to  have  been 
added  aftenvards';  and,  with  regard  to  a  photograph  on  page  225  of 
your  book,  the  same  pubHcation  says  that  'the  chains  around  the 
necks  of  the  natives  would  also  appear  to  have  been  designed  on  the 
plate.' 

"You  have  put  these  photographs  forward  as  real.  Will  you  pro- 
duce the  negatives  and  the  i.ame  of  the  person  who  took  the  actual 
photographs?  Or  will  you  remain  content  to  rest  under  the  charge 
of  fabricating  evidence  of  this  description  to  deceive  your  readers  ? 

"The  Catholic  Herald  denounces,  and  will  denounce,  outrages  upon 
natives  and  wrong-doing  and  maladministration  of  native  territories, 
whether  by  Belgians  or  by  any  other  people.  No  doubt  wrong-doing 
has  taken  place;  but  is  it  of  such  a  character  as  justifies  people  in  this 
country  taking  up  arms  against  those  responsible  for  it  ? 

"Is  it  not  rather  inseparable  from  the  administration  of  native 
territories  ?  Let  any  one  responsible  for  native  administration  answer 
this  question,  but  let  not  the  good  cause  of  fair  play  and  justice  for  the 
natives  be  disgraced  and  besmirched  by  the  recklessness  and  vicious - 
ness  that  have  been  displayed  in  connection  with  this  Congo  agitation. 

"The  Catholic  Herald  accepts  in  full  all  responsibility  for  the  state- 
ments made  herein,  and  for  the  publication  of  them,  and  for  their 
circulation  broadcast  through  the  Press  of  this  country,  and  believes 
that  in  doing  so  it  is  discharging  a  public  duty,  not  only  to  the  Catholic 
name,  which  you  have  foully  libelled,  but  also  to  the  cause  of  inter- 
national peace  and  goodwill,  which  this  anti-Congo  campaign,  based 
on  selfish  and  sordid  motives,  has  done  so  much  to  impair. 

"The  administration  of  the  Congo  will  compare  more  than  favour- 
ably with  the  administration  of  native  territories  imder  British  rule. 
There  is  more  consideration  shown  to  the  natives,  more  care  e\'inced 
for  their  interests,  and  they  arc  less  heavily  taxed,  and  more  humanely 
treated  in  the  Congo,  than  is  the  case  in  any  British  territory  in  Africa 
to-day. 

"Some  of  the  lies  sent  forth  on  the  wings  of  the  Press  arc  hereby 
nailed  to  the  counter,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  yourself,  or  your 
Society,  will  at  once  disprove,  by  any  means  at  your  disposal,  charges 
which,  if  not  so  disproved,  clearly  show  that  your  evidence  in  con- 
nection with  these  matters  is  discredited  and  untrustworthy,  and  that 
no  one  will  be  justified  in  paying  attention  to  any  statement  of  yours, 
unless  supported  by  evidence  that  has  not  been  purchased  or  invented. 

"The  Editor, 
"The  Catholic  Herald." 


376  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

tactics  such  as  are  here  exposed  have  to  be  resorted 
to.' 

In  1902,  on  the  recommendation  of  a  high  official 
of  the  Free  State,  Mr.  Antoine  Benedetti,  a  cultured 
A  Typical  gentleman  belonging  to  an  ancient  and 
phobe'  wealthy  family  in  Sicily,  was  appointed 
Method.  chief  commissary — a  post  which  had  never 
before  been  conferred  on  a  foreigner  on  account  of  its 
special  responsibilities.  This  rapid  promotion  shows 
in  what  esteem  Mr.  Benedetti  was  held  by  his  chiefs. 

Mr.  Benedetti  returned  to  Europe  on  November 
7,  1904,  and  when  requested  to  give  his  chiefs  some 
information  on  the  existing  situation  in  the  Congo, 
related  circumstances  which  might  well  be  consid- 
ered fit  for  a  novel,  if  their  accuracy  were  not 
vouched  for  by  authentic  documents. 

'  From  The  Transvaal  Trouble,  an  Extract  from  the  Biography  of  the 
late  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  by  John  Martineau  (pp.  211,  212): 

"During  these  years,  about  1879,  a  society  in  London,  called  the 
Aborigines'  Protection  Society,  took  upon  itself  the  function  of  judging 
between  the  white  and  the  black  races  in  South  Africa,  and  of  arraign- 
ing the  conduct  of  the  white  race  whenever  there  was  a  question  be- 
tween the  two.  That  a  society  in  London,  with  paid  officers  bound  to 
justify  their  employment  by  finding  something  to  complain  of,  should 
take  upon  itself  to  pronounce  judgment  upon  difficult  and  complex 
questions  between  races  in  South  Africa  was,  on  the  face  of  it,  not  more 
reasonable  than  that  a  society  should  be  started  at  Cape  Town,  say, 
to  protect  women  and  children  in  London.  By  its  constitution, 
which  was  practically  that  of  advocattis  diaboli  against  the  white  man, 
such  a  society  must  always  of  necessity  take  a  one-sided  view,  from 
which  misapprehension  and  mischief  could  hardly  fail  to  result,  how- 
ever carefully  considered  were  the  methods  employed. 

"The  methods  employed  by  the  Aborigines'  Protection  Society  bore 
some  resemblance  to  those  of  mediaeval  Venice.  The  Blue-books  of 
the  time  are  full  of  letters  from  the  society  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
detailing  stories  of  alleged  oppression  or  cruelty,  and  demanding  an 
inquiry;  or  sometimes  a  question  was  asked  to  the  same  effect  in 
Parliament.     It  would  be  many  months  before  the  reply  to  the  in- 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  England       1"]^ 

While  at  Boma,  Mr.  Benedetti  noticed  that  a 
Negro  named  Shanu,  a  British  subject  from  Lagos, 
was  trying  to  discover  his  opinions  on  Congo  policy 
and  admini:,tration.  Shanu  having  been  at  one  time 
in  the  employ  of  the  State,  Mr.  Benedetti  suspected 
nothing;  but  in  the  course  of  conversation  with  the 
Negro,  he  perceived  what  Shanu  wanted  to  get  from 
him.  Shanu  boasted  to  Mr.  Benedetti  of  the  hu- 
manitarian character  of  the  English  campaign  against 
the  Congo,  and  he  further  hinted  that,  if  he  were 
correctly  informed,  Mr.  Benedetti  would  surely  join 
in  the  said  campaign,  a  course  which  would  be  of 
great  advantage  to  him.  Mr.  Benedetti  pretended 
to  share  the  views  of  Shanu,  who  thereupon  pushed 
the  matter  home  by  producing  some  letters  of  Mr. 

quiry  could  come  back  from  the  Cape,  and,  in  the  meantime,  the  story 
was  circulated,  and  the  refutation  came  too  late  to  be  listened  to. 
The  society  generally  refused  to  give  the  name  of  its  informant,  or  the 
particulars  of  time  and  place,  so  that,  like  the  lion's  mouth  at  Venice, 
it  offered  an  opportunity  to  any  one — agitator,  place-hunter,  or 
criminal  having  a  spite  against  a  magistrate  or  official — to  injure  him 
anonymously.  The  fear  of  being  denoiinced  by  some  scoun- 

drel to  the  society  in  some  districts  seriously  interfered  with  and 
often  perverted  the  administration  of  justice.  ...  In  one  in- 
stance, a  man,  on  whose  testimony  is  placed  special  reliance,  was  dis- 
covered to  be  a  disfrocked  clergyman  who  had  been  in  custody  for 
swindling  another  informant,  who  in  turn  was  a  trader  who  had  been 
in  jail  for  gun-running. 

"Mr.  H.  Nixon,  writing  to  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  says: 

'"The  lawlessness  of  the  coloured  races  and  their  hopeless  state  of 
degradation,  their  drunkenness,  and  general  dissolute  habits  may 
fairly  be  laid  to  the  baneful  influence  of  the  Aborigines'  Protection 
Society,  which  has  done  everything  it  possibly  could  to  paralyse  the 
arm  of  the  law  in  the  execution  of  justice,  and  I  consider  the  demoral- 
isation of  the  natives  is  entirely  due  to  their  persistent  agitation. 
The  drunkenness  in  this  province  is  quite  alarming  and  unprece- 
dented.'" 


37^         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Edmund  Deville  Morel,  Secretary  of  the  Congo  Re- 
form Association. 

In  one  of  these  letters,  Mr.  Morel  informs  Shanu 
that  Mr.  Benedetti,  commissary  at  Boma,  has  been 
spoken  of  to  him  as  one  who  would  be  a  valuable 
acquisition  in  the  English  campaign  against  the 
Congo.  Mr.  Benedetti  at  once  saw  what  was  ex- 
pected of  him;  he  realised  that  efforts  were  being 
made  to  enlist  in  the  anti -Congo  campaign  the  num- 
erous Italians  in  the  service  of  the  Free  State;  and, 
with  the  sole  desire  of  protecting  the  honour  of  his 
fellow-countrymen  in  the  Congo,  he  resolved  to 
defeat  Mr.  Morel's  jjlans.  With  a  view  of  gaining 
Shanu' s  confidence,  he  declared  himself  to  be  on  the 
Negro's  side,  and  by  so  doing  compromised  himself 
in  the  eyes  of  his  official  colleagues.  He  told  Shanu 
— who  lost  no  time  in  informing  Mr.  Morel — that  by 
virtue  of  his  position,  he  was  able  to  make  some 
startling  revelations.  Shanu  thereupon  suggested 
that  he  should  send  in  his  resignation,  giving  as  the 
reason  certain  compromising  allegations  against  the 
Free  State.  Shanu  then  wrote  to  Mr.  Morel  to 
the  effect  that  he  and  Mr.  Benedetti  agreed  that 
the  latter  was  just  the  man  to  lead  the  campaign 
against  the  Congo.  On  the  receipt  of  Mr.  Morel's 
reply,  the  departure  of  Mr.  Benedetti  was  decided 
upon. 

Mr.  Benedetti  was  promised  his  passage  money  to 
Europe,  as  well  as  compensation  for  the  loss  of  his 
place  under  the  Free  State,  and,  later,  a  handsome 
bonus.  Mr.  Morel  requested  Mr.  Benedetti  to  meet 
him  at  the  Exchange  Station  Hotel,  Liverpool,  on 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  England       379 

the  19th  November,  and  to  announce  his  arrival  by 
the  following  telegram: 

"Morel  care  Jellani  arrived  Benedetti  " 

Under  these  circumstances,  Mr.  Benedetti  sent  in 
his  resignation,  alleging  that  private  business  called 
him  to  Europe.  He  left  by  the  SS.  Philippeville, 
and  the  British  Consul  at  Boma  gave  him  ten  pounds 
sterling  for  his  travelHng  expenses.  The  receipt  for 
this  sum  was  made  out  by  Mr.  Benedetti  in  the  name 
of  Shanu. 

Up  to  the  time  of  his  departure,  Mr.  Benedetti  had 
discharged  his  duties  so  well  that  he  was  congratu- 
lated by  the  local  authorities.  Having  spoken  to 
nobody  about  the  course  he  was  adopting,  so  little 
was  his  sudden  departure  understood  that  his  col- 
leagues were  mystified.  He  could  not,  of  course, 
enlighten  them  without  showing  his  hand.  Mr. 
Benedetti  landed  at  Antwerp  on  November  7th,  and 
on  the  17th  arrived  at  Liverpool,  having  previously 
despatched  to  Mr.  Morel  the  telegram  agreed  upon. 
After  some  delay  Mr.  Morel  went  to  see  Mr.  Bene- 
detti at  the  Exchange  Station  Hotel  in  that  city. 

Mr.  Morel  appeared  somewhat  distrustful,  and 
asked  Mr.  Benedetti  if  he  had  authenticating  docu- 
ments. The  latter  produced  some  unimportant 
papers,  which  he  pretended  were  valuable,  and  told 
the  Secretary  of  the  Congo  Reform  Association  some 
sensational  stories  of  absolutely  imaginary  crimes. 
In  short,  Mr.  Benedetti  played  his  game  so  well  that 
Mr.  Morel  no  longer  hesitated  to  close  the  affair,  but 
said  he  would  introduce  to  him  a  gentleman  who  was 
greatly  interested  in  the  Congo. 


jSo  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

In  response  to  a  telephonic  message  from  Mr. 
Morel  there  arrived  Mr.  John  Holt,  a  merchant,  of 
Dale  Street,  Liverpool.  Mr.  Holt  is  Vice-President 
of  the  Liverpool  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Congo  Reform  Association.  Mr.  Morel 
told  Mr.  Holt  what  Mr.  Benedetti  had  said,  and  then 
certain  practical  questions  were  discussed.  It  was 
agreed  that  Mr.  Benedetti  should  relate  in  the  West 
African  Mail  the  stories  that  he  had  just  invented; 
but  Mr.  Benedetti,  wishing  to  gain  time,  stated  that 
he  would  rather  publish  them  first  in  Italy,  after 
which  the  organ  of  the  Congo  Reform  Association 
might  reproduce  them.  It  was  decided  also  to  issue 
a  pamphlet,  for  which  Mr.  Benedetti  was  to  receive 
eighty  pounds.  Some  generous  promises  were  made 
to  Mr.  Benedetti:  five  hundred  pounds  as  damages 
and  his  fare  paid  to  Tenerifie  by  the  Congo  Reform 
Association.  At  Tenerifie,  it  was  agreed,  he  should 
seek  to  poison  the  minds  of  Italian  officers  returning 
from  the  Congo.  Later,  Mr.  Holt  was  to  go  to  Italy 
where,  together  with  Mr.  Benedetti,  he  was  to  sub- 
sidise a  newspaper  to  attack  the  Congo,  and  if  this 
newspaper  war  resulted  in  the  King  of  Italy  recalling 
Italian  officers  serving  in  the  Congo,  Mr.  Benedetti 
was  to  receive  a  further  sum  of  four  thousand  pounds. 

The  former  commissary  of  Boma  would  not  accept 
verbal  promises;  he  requested  a  document.  He 
demanded  first  of  all  a  contract  for  the  publication 
of  the  pamphlet.  Mr.  Benedetti  invited  Mr.  Morel 
and  Mr.  Holt  to  dinner,  and  it  was  during  this  dinner 
on  the  I  gth  of  November  that  the  clauses  of  the  con- 
tract were  discussed.     Conversation  was  carried  on 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  England       381 

to  a  late  hour  and  Mr.  Holt,  in  an  unguarded  mo- 
ment, remarked  that  in  England  everything  was 
done  by  and  for  the  sake  of  business,  and  that  senti- 
ment was  obliged  to  give  way  to  trade.  The  signing 
of  the  contract  was  fixed  for  eleven  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  the  21st  of  November,  1904,  when  the 
three  gentlemen  concerned  attended  and  the  follow- 
ing document  was  drawn  up  and  signed.  The  text 
is  in  English  and  French : 

Between  Mr.  Benedetti  and  Mr.  Morel  it  is  agreed  as  fol- 
lows:— Mr.  Benedetti  agrees  to  publish  in  a  special  pamphlet 
all  the  statements  that  he  made  and  proved  by  means  of 
documents  on  the  evening  of  the  19th  of  November  at  the 
Exchange  Station  Hotel,  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Morel  and 
Mr.  Holt,  as  well  as  various  other  facts  the  evidence  of  which 
is  in  his  possession  in  Italy. 

Mr.  Benedetti  shall  first  submit  to  Mr.  Morel,  before  the 
5th  of  December,  a  rough  copy  of  his  pamphlet  in  English  and 
Italian.  Upon  this  rough  copy  Mr.  Morel  reserves  the  right 
to  make  corrections,  and  to  send  these  corrections  to  Mr. 
Benedetti  by  the  9th  of  December,  unless  prevented  by  force 
majeure. 

As  soon  as  the  pamphlet  has  been  approved  by  Mr.  Morel, 
Mr.  Benedetti  shall  send  to  Mr.  Morel  a  corrected  copy  (if  cor- 
rections have  been  made)  in  English  and  Italian,  as  well  as  a 
copy  of  the  original  documents  in  his  possession,  certified  by 
the  British  Consul  on  the  original  text. 

Mr.  Benedetti  undertakes  to  be  ready  to  publish  all  by 
22nd  December,  or  by  such  date  as  Mr.  Morel  shall  telegraph 
to  him. 

In  any  case,  Mr.  Benedetti  will  not  publish  all  or  any  part 
of  the  pamphlet  without  previous  understanding  with  Mr. 
Morel  as  to  the  date. 

Mr.  Benedetti  undertakes  to  place  at  Mr.  Morel's  disposal, 
after  the  publication  of  the   pamphlet,  all  original  papers 


382  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

referred  to  in  the  said  pamphlet,  and  Mr.  Morel  undertakes 
to  return  them,  if  required. 

Mr.  Morel  deposits  a  thousand  francs  for  Mr.  Benedetti's 
travelling  expenses  from  Boma. 

Mr.  Morel  undertakes  to  pay  Mr.  Benedetti  the  sum  of  two 
thousand  francs,  which  sum  represents  the  loss  to  Mr.  Bene- 
detti of  his  situation  in  the  Congo  State,  owing  to  the  publica- 
tion of  statements  made  in  the  said  pamphlet,  as  soon  as  he 
receives  from  Mr.  Benedetti  notice  that  the  pamphlet  has 
been  published  in  Italy,  and  a  copy  of  the  pamphlet. 

Mr.  Morel  undertakes  to  pay  the  expenses  incurred  in  pub- 
lishing the  pamphlet  in  Italy  up  to  the  sum  of  five  hundred 
francs.  Mr.  Benedetti  undertakes  to  send  two  hundred 
copies  of  the  pamphlet  to  Mr.  Morel. 

It  is  understood  on  both  sides  that  the  above  entirely 
covers  all  relations  between  Mr.  Benedetti  and  Mr.  Morel. 

Mr.  Morel  undertakes  to  obtain  from  Mr.  Shanu,  of  Boma, 
the  receipt  for  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  francs  handed  by 
Mr.  Benedetti  to  Mr.  Shanu,  and  to  deduct  the  sum  from  the 
two  thousand  francs  above  mentioned. 

Signed  the  21st  November,  1904,  at  Liverpool  Exchange 
Station  Hotel. 

E.  D.  Morel. 
A.  Benedetti. 

Witness  to  signatures  of  A.  Benedetti  and  E.  D.  Morel: 

John  Holt, 
merchant, 

81  Dale  Street, 

Liverpool. 

It  is  not  without  interest  to  call  attention  to  the 
final  clause,  concerning  the  receipt  for  the  250  francs 
which  Mr.  Benedetti  had  given  to  Shanu,  as  a  guaran- 
tee of  the  £10  which  the  British  Consul  at  Boma  had 
given  him  before  his  departure. 

As  to  the  clause  concerning  the  thousand  francs 


« 


pq 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  England       383 

which  Mr.  Morel  undertook  to  pay  Benedetti  for  his 
travelling  expenses  from  Boma,  it  came  about 
through  the  fact  that  his  departure  from  Boma  was 
not  in  accord  with  the  regulations.  As  his  engage- 
ment was  not  terminated,  the  question  of  his  being 
sent  home  at  the  expense  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
was  not  settled.  Mr.  Holt  took  from  his  pocket  a  roll 
of  Bank  of  England  notes  and  paid  Mr.  Benedetti 

As  soon  as  he  was  in  possession  of  this  contract, 
Mr.  Benedetti  returned  to  Brussels,  whence  he  sent 
Mr.  Morel  the  following  letter: 

Brussels,  30th  November,  1904. 
Mr.  E.  D.  Morel,  Liverpool, 

I  have  the  pleasure  of  remitting  herewith  to  you  a  cheque 
on  the  South  Wales  Bank,  Limited,  No.  109,880,  to  the  order 
of  Mr.  John  Holt,  merchant,  Dale  Street,  Liverpool,  for  ^40, 
which  this  latter  gave  me  in  the  Exchange  Station  Hotel, 
Liverpool,  on  the  21st  of  this  month. 

I  will  also  send  you  a  sum  of  ^"lo  in  exchange  for  the  re- 
ceipt of  Shanu,  which  you  promised  to  procure  for  me. 

You  made  a  mistake.  Sir,  when  you  thought  I  would  play 
into  your  hands  in  your  campaign  against  the  Congo,  and 
thus  do  grievous  harm  to  my  countrymen  working  in  the 
Congo. 

Believe   me,   my   conduct,   from  my   first   interview   with 

Shanu,  when  acting  for  you,  till  my  telegram  from  Paris  on 

the  28th  of  this  month,  was  dictated  by  a  sentiment  of  duty 

and  patriotism. 

A.  Benedetti. 

The  telegram  to  which  Mr.  Benedetti  alludes  was 
addressed  to  Mr.  Morel  from  Paris,  and  was  to  call 
his  attention  to  an  article  in  the  Tribuna  favourable 
to  the  Congo,  and  to  ask  him  for  arguments  in  answer 


384         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

to  this  article  for  pubHcation  in  an  Italian  paper. 
Mr.  Morel  replied  that  he  had  not  had  time  to  get 
the  Trihuna  article  translated. 

This  edifying  incident  needs  no  comment.  When 
the  denial  of  its  genuineness,  or  a  qualification  of  its 
meaning  and  purpose,  comes,  it  is  understood  that 
the  Congo  Administration  will  publish  a  facsimile  of 
Mr.  Morel's  contract  with  Mr.  Benedetti,  bearing  his 
signature  and  the  signature  of  Mr.  John  Holt,  mer- 
chant-philanthropist, Vice-President  of  the  Liverpool 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  etc.,  in  order  that  intelligent 
people  may  form  their  own  conclusions  upon  it  at 
first  hand. 

Mr.  Morel  writes  to  the  London  Times  of  December 
19,  1904,  defending  the  part  he  has  played  in  this 
Benedetti  incident.  "You  persist,"  says  Mr.  Morel 
(addressing  M.  Roland  de  Mares),  "to  make  readers 
believe  that  I  proposed  to  pay  M.  Benedetti  for  false 
testimony,  whereas  my  role  was  limited  to  giving  him 
the  opportunity  he  asked  for  (that  is  to  say,  to  come 
to  Europe  and  to  publish  under  his  own  name,  in 
the  interests  of  truth  and  of  his  fellow-countrymen), 
by  defraying  the  expenses  of  his  journey  and  the 
positive  pecuniary  losses  which  his  action  would  in- 
volve, and  by  participating  in  the  printing  expenses 
of  his  pamphlet." 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE  CONGO  CAMPAIGN  IN  AMERICA 

THE  interest  taken  by  Americans  in  the  affairs 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  has  never  been  very 
keen.  What  little  of  interest,  however,  we 
do  take  in  that  distant  region  has  been  sentimental, 
for  the  greater  part  based  upon  the  national  respect 
for  Stanley  and  his  work.  The  campaign  in  England 
against  the  Congo,  therefore,  fails  to  evoke  any 
substantial  sympathy  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
Citizens  of  the  United  States  are  better  employed 
than  in  undertaking  knight-errantry  at  the  behest  of 
certain  disappointed  British  merchants  and  fanatics. 
But,  inasmuch  as  it  is  vital  to  the  enemies  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  that  our  country  should  be  with 
them  in  their  crusade,  the  Rev.  Mr.  W.  M.  American 
Morrison,  of  Lexington,  Virginia,  a  gentle-  Aid 

man  whose  Christianity  is  liberally  leavened  Wanted, 
with  business  acumen,  was  brought  to  the  front  and 
set  upon  a  pedestal.  The  light  of  publicity  was 
turned  upon  the  reverend  gentleman,  who  then  pro- 
ceeded to  relate  stories  of  outrage  and  oppression, 
examples  of  which  he  had  seen  and  heard — chiefly 
heard — during  six  years'  residence  in  the  Congo  Free 
State  as  a  missionary  of  the  American  Presbyterians. 
Mr.  Morrison's  stories  are  of  the  stock  variety, 
and  include  looted  villages,  wholesale  deportations, 

385 


386  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

mutilations,  burnings,  State  slavery,  and  refusal  of 
land  concessions  to  missionaries — in  brief,  the  whole 
catalogue  of  infamies  without  which,  real  or  alleged, 
men  such  as  Mr.  Fox  Bourne,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Aborigines'  Protection  Society  in  England,  and  Mr. 
Morel,  who  built  the  Congo  Reform  Association 
around  himself,  would  find  their  occupation  gone. 
The  italics  are  mine.  Why  I  have  used  them  will 
at  once  appear. 

"Concessions  or  grants  of  land,  however  small," 
wails  Mr.  Morrison,  ' '  can  now  no  longer  be  obtained 
A  Morris-  f^om  the  State  by  other  than  favoured  indi- 
onian  viduals  or  corporations      .     .     .     Not  only 

Jeremiad.  ^^^  conccssions  refused  to  traders,  they  are 
also  refused  to  missionaries."  Alas!  yes,  in  the  case 
of  a  missionary  who  demands,  as  Mr.  Morrison  did, 

that  no  taxes  shall  be  levied,  and  no  soldiers  drawn 
from  certain  populations  around  Luebo."  ' 

The  refusal  of  Mr.  Morrison's  demand  for  the 
creation  of  an  Alsatia  which  should  be  equally  at- 
tractive to  the  idle  and  the  thrifty,  from  which  the 
State  was  to  receive  no  support,  and  which,  in  the  cir- 
cumstances, would  certainly  at  once  become  the 
most  populous  district  in  all  the  Congo  Free  State, 
seems  to  have  angered  the  reverend  gentleman,  for 
thereafter  followed  his  discovery  of  atrocities  com- 
mitted by  State  officials  against  natives.  Land  was 
offered  to  Mr.  Morrison  upon  equitable  terms,  iden- 
tical with  those  agreed  upon  between  the  State  and 
numerous  other  missions. 

When  Mr.  Morrison  was  in  Brussels  in  the  spring 

^  The  scene  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  W.  M   Morrison's  mission. 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  America       387 

of  1903,  negotiating  with  the  Congo  Government 
concerning  the  concession  of  land,  and  in  constant 
touch  with  officials  of  that  Government, 
he  said  not  one  word  about  any  atrocities  Discovery 
which  he  had  seen  or  heard  of  in  Congo - 
land;  but  a  few  weeks  later,  he  was  in  London, 
associating  with  the  English  Congophobes,  and 
calling  upon  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
to  combine  with  that  of  Great  Britain  to  coerce 
the  Congo  Government,  though  in  what  manner 
and  to  what  effect  is  not  quite  clear.  What,  how- 
ever, is  perfectly  clear,  is  the  bad  faith  of  the 
men  who  make  it  their  business  to  vilify  and  mis- 
represent the  Congo  Administration.  For  example, 
here  is  Mr.  Morrison's  statement  about  the  almost 
impossibility  of  obtaining  concessions  of  land  for 
missions,  when  up  to  May,  1903,  there  had  been 
fifteen  grants  of  land  conceded  in  the  Congo  State 
to  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union;  two  to 
the  American  Congo  Mission;  fifteen  to  the  British 
Baptist  Society  Corporation;  seven  to  the  Bishop 
Taylor's  Self -Supporting  Mission;  "seven  to  the 
Congo  Balolo  Mission;  eleven  to  the  International 
Missionary  Alliance ;  nine  to  the  Swedish  Missionary 
Societ3^  and  forty-four  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Mission. 

The  campaign  against  the  Cong  in  this  country 
was  opened  on  the  19th  of  April,  1904,  by  the  pre- 
sentation to  Congress  of  a  huge  inflated  ^ew  Facts 
memorial,  accompanied  by  numerous  sub-  in  Many 
stantiating  documents  of  great  length.  It 
was  gotten  up   by  the  Rev.  Thomas    S.  Barbour, 


388         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Chairman  of  the  Conference  of  Missionary  Societies 
and  Secretary  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union,  Boston,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Rev.  W.  M. 
Morrison  and  six  other  gentlemen  interested  in  mis- 
sionary work.  Senator  Morgan,  of  Alabama,  under- 
took the  work  of  presentation,  and  performed  his 
task  with  as  much  moderation  and  grace  as  its  na- 
ture permitted.  The  memorial  was  referred  to  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  and  ordered  to  be 
printed. 

On  the  whole,  the  reception  of  this  strange  literary 
budget— a  rechauffe  of  oft -refuted  fables  and  adroit 
Not  Uncle  distortions  of  events  that  occurred  long 
Sam's  ago — was  decidedly  passive.  The  prevail- 
Afifair.  ^j^g  impression  among  Senators  seemed  to 
be  that  even  if  all  that  is  asserted  in  the  memorial 
be  true  (a  monstrous  supposition  which  surely  its 
promoters  never  seriously  entertained),  to  play  into 
the  hands  of  John  Bull's  merchants  at  the  bidding 
of  John  Bull's  missionaries  is  hardly  a  suitable  role 
for  Uncle  Sam. 

The  next  move  in  the  campaign  against  the 
Congo  Free  State  in  this  country  took  place  at 
A  Mischiev- ^^shington  on  the  30th  of  September, 
ous  Busy-  1904,  when  the  Secretary  of  the  Congo 
°  ^"  Reform    Association    (an    English    organ- 

isation of  which  Mr.  John  Holt,  the  merchant- 
philanthropist,  of  Liverpool,  is  one  of  the  pillars) 
presented  a  memorial  to  President  Roosevelt  con- 
cerning affairs  in  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  asking  for 
his  intervention  therein.  The  memorial  was  politely 
received,  acknowledged  with    graceful    platitudes, 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  America       389 

and  laid  aside.  During  the  few  weeks  that  the 
Congo  Reform  Association's  agitator  was  in  this 
country,  he  talked  freely  to  every  newspaper  re- 
porter he  met,  and  disseminated  broadcast  the  old 
libels  which  had  grown  stale  with  use  in  England. 

When  the  Belgian  people  learned  of  the  presenta- 
tion to  President  Roosevelt  of  the  second  anti-Congo 
memorial,  wherein  the  agents  of  the  British  -pj^e  Belgian 
merchants  strove  to  make  it  appear  that  People 
the  United  States  ought  to  do  what  all  the  ^^^^' 

continental  powers  had,  by  their  silence,  refused  to 
do  when  the  British  Foreign  Secretary  appealed  to 
them  in  August,  1903,  their  leading  citizens  took  a 
hand  in  the  literary  carnival  and  sent  President 
Roosevelt  their  reply  to  the  series  of  slanders  which 
were  being  so  widely  disseminated  in  America  by  the 
Liverpool  organisation.  Although  the  anti -Congolese 
resolutions  of  the  Boston  Peace  Conference  were 
published  in  extenso  in  the  secular  and  religious  press 
throughout  the  United  States,  for  some  inscrutable 
reason  the  Belgian  reply  to  the  second  Liverpool 
memorial  sent  to  President  Roosevelt  on  October  3, 
1904,  has  so  far  never  had  the  advantage  of  similar 
publicity.  This  fact  alone  would  indicate  that  his 
Excellency,  Baron  Moncheur,  Belgian  Minister  to  the 
United  States,  and  his  talented  coadjutor.  Professor 
A.  Nerincx.  an  eminent  Belgian  advocate,  author, 
and  instructor  in  the  University  of  Louvain,  were 
quite  indifferent  to  that  campaign  of  publicity  which 
the  enemies  of  the  Congo  Free  State  began  in  Eng- 
land and  now  continue  in  America.  In  justice,  how- 
ever, to  the  Federation  for  the  Defence  of  Belgian 


390  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Interests  Abroad,  a  Belgian  society  numbering  over 
fifty  thousand  adherents,  it  is  deemed  desirable  to 
quote  in  full  the  only  communication  bearing  upon 
the  anti-Congolese  campaign  which  the  offtcial  of  the 
Free  State  or  the  Belgian  people  have  ever  addressed 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States : 

fedi;ration    pour    le    defense    des    interets    belges    a 

l'etranger. 

Brussels,  October  3,  1904. 
To  His  Excellency,  Theodore  Roosevelt, 

President  of  the  United  States. 
Mr.  President: 

The  Federation  for  the  Defence  of  Belgian  Interests  Abroad 
presents  its  compliments  to  the  President  of  the  United  States 
and  begs  leave  to  state: 

That  we  are  loth  to  impose  upon  the  President  of  the 
United  States  considerations  which  are  foreign  to  the  interests 
of  his  Government.  But  inasmuch  as  certain  persons  are 
conducting  within  the  United  States  a  movement  to  involve 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  the  consideration  of 
their  unfounded  charges  and  interested  misrepresentations 
against  the  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  we  feel  it 
our  duty  to  present  a  brief  statement  of  the  objects  of  the 
Congo  Government  to  the  President  of  a  friendly  Power  in 
order  that  the  unjust  methods  being  employed  by  the  enemies 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  may  not  mislead  the  President  to 
encourage  Congressional  action  prejudicial  to  our  interests 
before  we  shall  have  been  fully  heard. 

Our  Association  has  been  formed  for  the  defence  of  Belgian 
interests  and  possessions  abroad.  Our  people  esteem  and 
admire  the  people  of  the  United  States  and  we  have  great 
respect  for  their  President.  The  Belgians  desire  that  they 
shall  not  be  slandered  and  vilified  in  the  midst  of  the  American 
people.  They  feel  it  their  duty  to  assist  the  American  people  to 
a  proper  \mderstanding  of  the  lofty  purposes  which  actuate  the 


a 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  America       391 

Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  In  this  connection 
the  Belgians  recall  with  pleasure  and  with  pride  the  fact  that 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  was  the  first  great 
nation  to  recognise  the  flag  of  the  International  Association 
of  the  Congo  as  that  of  an  independent  State.  By  its  treaties 
and  by  its  adherence  to  the  Berlin  and  Brussels  Acts  it 
promised  liberty  of  trade  in  its  part  of  the  Congo  Basin,  and 
it  respectfully  asserts  that  it  has  fulfilled  that  promise  in 
spirit  and  to  the  letter  in  so  far  as  the  short  term  of  its  exist- 
ence in  a  savage  cotintry  has  enabled  it  to  establish  an  organ- 
isation which,  by  its  prosperity  and  progress,  now  excites  the 
envy  of  those  who  seek  to  disrupt  it. 

The  principles  which  actuate  the  Congo  Government  are 
tersely  set  out  in  an  essay  written  by  a  highly  qualified 
American  citizen,  which  is  herewith  enclosed.  We  humbly 
beg  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  honour  us  by  perus- 
ing this  concise  exposition  of  the  fundamental  principles 
which  underlie,  and  which  have  given  such  progressive 
momentum  to,  the  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State. 

The  principles  of  the  Congo  Government  are  devoted  to 
progress  and  civilisation.  The  State's  motto  is  "Work  and 
Progress."  We  have  always  felt  that  to  intelligently  follow 
that  motto  was  to  firmly  establish  in  the  midst  of  conditions 
of  savagery  the  habit  of  industry  and  a  respect  for  property 
as  well  as  for  life,  according  to  the  universal  law  of  nations. 

Concerning  the  term  "  Freedom  of  Commerce,"  which  Congo 
enemies  are  interpreting  to  mean  ungovemed  license,  we  beg 
to  refer  the  President  to  the  laws  of  the  United  States  and 
penalties  concerning  trespass  upon  and  pillage  of  public  lands 
and  their  product.  Perhaps  no  nation  in  the  world  has  so 
precisely  developed  the  law  of  private  and  public  property, 
nor  administered  it  with  finer  understanding  of  the  principles 
of  equity  and  justice,  than  the  United  States.  The  Congo  law 
relating  to  property  is  in  consonance  with  the  law  of  the 
world's  greatest  nations.  The  great  success  which  has  been 
attained  by  the  Congo  Government  for  the  betterment  of  its 
native  inhabitants  by  the  operation  of  this  law,  and  the  order 
which  exists  thereunder,  has  excited  the  envy  and  the  avarice 


392  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

of  those  whose  ulterior  motive  is  being  cloaked  in  the  garb  of 
humanitarianism  and  questionable  philanthropy.  On  the  one 
hand  it  is  charged  that  the  Congo  Government  by  its  method 
seeks  to  enslave  the  native  in  order  that  he  may  serve  it 
with  his  hands  for  the  benefit  of  interests  whose  welfare  he 
does  not  share.  On  the  other  hand,  the  libellers  of  the 
Congo  wilfully  utter  not  only  the  unfounded  accusation  but 
the  inconsistent  charge,  that  the  Government  cuts  off  the 
hand  whose  work  it  seeks  to  enslave.  Concerning  the  un- 
truthful character  of  the  testimony  in  this  respect  which 
has  been  published  against  the  Congo  by  the  promoters  of 
the  so-called  "Congo  Reform  Association"  of  Liverpool,  we 
beg  to  refer  your  Excellency  to  the  great  mass  of  genuine 
and  reliable  evidence  by  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  Germans, 
Americans,  Italians,  and  Belgians  in  direct  contradiction  of 
the  falsehoods  which  form  the  traffic  of  the  Association,  whose 
leading  spirit  has  never  been  near  the  Congo  nor  the  natives 
who  form  the  pretext  of  his  search  for  personal  notoriety 
and  aggrandisement. 

We  also  call  your  Excellency's  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  Congo  Government,  when  assailed  by  missionaries  at  all, 
is  assailed  by  a  few  individual  missionaries  operating  in  con- 
junction with  the  Liverpool  Association,  whose  object  we 
shall  in  due  course  expose.  The  Congo  Government  has  not 
been  assailed  by  other  missionaries  at  all.  The  Catholic 
missionaries  are  in  reality  all  seeking  the  moral,  spiritual,  and 
intellectual  betterment  of  the  native  races,  while  those  of  a 
material  faith,  who  have  sought  from  the  Congo  Government 
and  been  denied  personal  concessions  of  material  value  solely, 
are  secretly  working  in  directions  entirely  unconnected  with 
the  spiritual  and  moral  welfare  of  the  Congo  population.  In 
due  time  and  in  the  proper  place  the  Government  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  will  produce  its  testimony  bearing  upon 
this  phase  of  the  campaign  begun  in  England,  and  now 
carried  to  the  United  States,  against  an  undertaking  which 
within  twenty  years  has  done  more  to  promote  civilisation 
than  was  ever  before  attempted  in  all  the  great  continent  of 
Africa. 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  America       393 

We  beg  your  Excellency  to  receive  from  the  hands  of  our 
representative  an  abundance  of  carefully  prepared  matter 
upon  this  subject,  and  to  command  him  in  any  further  de- 
sires which  you  may  wish  to  express.  A  cursory  outline, 
limited  to  only  a  few  phases  of  the  questions  which  the 
enemies  of  the  Congo  so  confusedly  mince  in  their  wild  con- 
demnation of  a  State  justly  founded  and  intelligently  and 
humanely  governed,  is  not  of  course  intended  as  a  sufficient 
statement  of  our  case.  It  is  merely  intended  to  introduce 
your  Excellency  to  the  subject  on  which  our  representative, 
and  the  evidence  and  literature  he  will  offer  to  you,  may  lead 
you  to  those  wise  and  equitable  conclusions  which  have 
always  characterised  the  highest  tribunals  of  the  American 
people. 

Your  Excellency  is  too  well  versed  in  the  science  of  govern- 
ment to  be  influenced  by  the  statement  that  where  individual 
acts  are  committed  in  violation  of  enacted  penal  law  the 
Government  should  be  primarily  charged  therewith.  If  such 
were  the  case,  penal  institutions  for  the  incarceration  of 
violators  of  police  law  would  be  no  part  of  a  nation's  structure. 

It  is  not  infrequent  that  the  cable  conveys  to  us  intimation 
that  in  some  sections  of  your  own  free  and  glorious  country 
an  inflamed  mob  seizes  upon  a  black  inhabitant  and  burns 
him  at  the  stake.  Our  governmental  experience  has  taught 
us  that  such  acts  would  have  been  impossible  if  your  Govern- 
ment had  been  advised  in  time  to  prevent  them.  And  yet 
we  know  that  your  Government  is  the  subject  of  harsh 
criticism  by  self-constituted  associations  formed  in  the  same 
countr)'-  whence  come  those  who  accuse  the  sincere  govern- 
mental effort  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  The  law  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  is  based  upon  the  loftiest  ideals  of  humane  control 
of  a  vast  territory  and  undeveloped  interests,  and  every 
part  of  the  State's  machinery  is  employed  to  ensure  equal 
justice  to  all. 

The  "method  of  the  State,"  at  which  Congo  accusers  hurl 
their  shafts,  cannot  be  charged  with  responsibility  for  lawless 
acts  in  a  vast  territory  of  a  million  square  miles  where  the 
Government  of  that  State  is  vigilantly  and  earnestly  seeking, 


394         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

by  the  extension  of  its  organisation  and  police  powers,  to  sup- 
press and  punish  crime  and  redress  wrong.  If  the  subjects  of 
one  nation  were  compelled  to  submit  to  the  opinion  of  its 
unfriendly  neighbours  as  to  the  correctness  of  their  habits  and 
conduct,  and  obliged  to  submit  themselves  to  the  penalties 
that  their  neighbours  would  attach  to  the  alleged  misconduct, 
the  subjects  of  one  nation  would  inhabit  the  prisons  of 
another. 

We  need  hardly  call  the  attention  of  your  Government  to 
the  great  and  humane  work  which  your  Government  is  now 
so  earnestly,  and  with  so  much  sacrifice,  furthering  in  the 
Philippine  Islands,  to  meet  with  that  broad  and  sympathetic 
view  of  the  situation  in  all  savage  countries;  which,  if  fairly 
and  justly  applied  to  the  Congo  Free  State,  would  place  us 
upon  that  plane  where  co-operation,  not  criticism,  were  the 
reward  of  our  sacrificial  work  in  the  darkest  part  of  Africa. 

It  has  been  the  pleasure  of  our  beloved  King,  Leopold  II., 
Sovereign  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  to  appoint  a  Commission, 
composed  of  eminent  men,  to  undertake  with  the  utmost 
freedom  a  judicial  investigation  upon  all  and  singular  the 
vague  charges  from  time  to  time  used  by  the  promoters  of 
the  Congo  Reform  Association  in  prostituting  certain  public 
journals  in  England.  Your  Excellency  may  be  assured  of  the 
utmost  integrity  of  the  gentlemen  who  compose  this  Com- 
mission, and  that  the  Congo  Government  will  afford  them  all 
the  help  in  its  power  to  place  the  truth  before  the  eyes  of  the 
world. 

In  this  connection  Congo  reformers  pretend  that  the  de- 
cisions of  the  Congo  Courts  indicate  that  the  government  is 
bad,  when  in  fact  these  very  decisions  are,  in  our  opinion, 
proof  of  unimpeachable  good  faith  and  judicial  independence. 

Concerning  the  Congo  standing  army  of  14,000  natives,  as 
to  which  some  criticism  is  uttered  by  the  same  persons,  we 
need  only  indicate  that  the  State  Government  is  so  well  re- 
spected in  the  Congo  Basin  that  it  is  able  to  control  its  vast 
territory  with  only  seven  soldiers  to  every  625  square  miles. 
We  have  no  doubt  that  if  the  Congo  governmental  system 
had  not  included  this  meagre  police  force  for  the  repression 


The  Congo  Campaign  in  America       395 

of  tribal  strife  and  the  maintenance  of  order,  its  critics  would 
have  represented  the  Congo  Government  as  unprepared  to 
guarantee  protection  to  persons  and  property,  and  as  unable 
to  maintain  the  integrity  of  its  frontiers.  The  Congo  army 
is  recruited  in  conformity  with  the  Belgian  law  of  conscription, 
which  is  a  restriction  of  the  universal  service  in  Continental 
Europe.  When  the  Government  enlisted  a  part  of  its  army 
in  a  neighbouring  colony  it  was  requested  to  desist,  the 
promises  of  England  to  permit  such  recruiting  notwithstand- 
ing. Now  the  Congo  army  is  characterised  as  barbarian! 
Doubtless  the  Congo  Government  would  have  no  objection 
to  recruit  its  army  in  China,  as  miners  are  recruited  for 
the  Transvaal.  But  would  it  thereby  escape  censure?  We 
think  not.  Some  things  which  are  right  and  proper  in  a 
British  colony  become  crimes  when  done  in  the  Congo  Free 
State. 

It  is  the  earnest  desire  of  the  Belgian  people,  and  those 
who  are  interested  in  the  welfare  and  progress  of  the  native 
population  of  Mid-Africa,  that  the  good-will  and  respect  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  and  their  President  may  continue, 
by  their  sympathy,  to  enliven  the  devotion,  energy,  and 
sacrifice  which  the  builders  of  the  Congo  Free  State  are  ex- 
pending upon  races  which  but  a  few  years  ago  were  in  a  state 
of  the  wildest  savagery. 

We  are,  Mr.  President,  with  great  respect, 
Your  obedient  servants, 

(Signed)         A.  Dufourny, 

President  of  the  Federation  for  the 
Defence  of  Belgian  Interests  Abroad. 

At  the  Peace  Congress  held  at  Boston  in  October, 
1904,  to  attend  which  was  as  much  the  reason  of  the 
visit  to  these  shores  of  the  Secretary  of  the  g-^^g 

Congo  Reform  Association  as  the  presenta-  Leopold 
tion  of  a  memorial  to  President  Roose-  -^"^cked. 
velt,  he  recited  his  usual  tirade  against  the  Congo 
Government  and  the  person  of  King  Leopold  with 


39^         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

somewhat  more  than  his  customary  unction ;  but  his 
contentions  were  utterly  demoHshed  by  the  superior 
information  and  saner  reasoning  of  his  fellow-coun- 
tryman, Mr.  George  Head,  and  by  a  letter  which 
was  read  from  Cardinal  Gibbons  {vide  Chap,  xxxiv), 
warmly  defending  the  aims  and  achievements  of  the 
Belgians  in  Central  Africa. 

The  net  result  of  the  Peace  Conference  to  the 
Congophobes  is  to  expose  and  appreciably  weaken 
their  conspiracy. 

There  remains  in  our  country  a  small  section  of 
the  press  obedient  to  the  will  of  an ti -Congolese 
campaigners  and  their  merchant  support, 
FaUs^"^^^^  and  the  eloquent  sophistries  of  Messrs. 
Morrison  and  Barbour.  But  these  forces 
are  surely  inadequate  to  cause  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  to  forget  all  of  our  political  tra- 
ditions, and  to  so  abate  our  natural  shrewdness,  as 
to  become  a  catspaw  for  an  avaricious  foreign  com- 
mercial clique. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

TESTIMONY  OF  TRAVELLERS  AND  THINKERS 
SIR    HENRY    M.    STANLEY 

IT  will  ever  be  esteemed  a  fortunate  circumstance 
by  all  who  have  regard  for  historical  accurac}^ 
that  the  late  Sir  Henry  M.  Stanley,  discoverer  of 
the  course  of  the  Congo,  who  assisted  so  materially 
in  the  creation  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  did  not  pass 
awa}^  without  recording  his  opinion  of  the  campaign 
of  calumny  against  the  Congo  Administration.  In- 
comparably the  greatest  authority  of  his  time  upon 
this  subject,  what  Stanley  had  to  say  about  it  must 
be  given  here  in  full.  It  took  the  form  of 
an  interview  with  a  representative  of  the  dT^t? 
press,  and  was  first  published  in  the  Petit 
Bleu  (Brussels),  13th  November,  1903: 

I  do  not  believe  [said  Sir  Henry  Stanley]  in  the  charges 
brought  against  the  Congo,  and  I  do  not  share  the  opinions 
that  inspire  them.  I  do  not  think  that  any  State  will  be  in- 
clined to  step  in,  and  to  spend  the  money  that  Belgium  and 
the  King  of  the  Belgians  spend  to  adapt  the  darkest  part  of 
Darkest  Africa  to  the  interests  of  commerce.  King  Leopold 
lately  assigned  ;£i 20,000  a  year  to  the  Congo  administration. 
He  thereafter  gave  ^£40,000  and  Belgium  £80,000.  Tell  me, 
what  other  country  would  be  ready  to  do  as  much? 

When  I  consider  the  limited  number  of  years  which  have 

397 


39^         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

elapsed  since  the  Congo  became  a  State,  I  hold  that  the  work 
which  has  been  accomplished  there  does  great  honour  to 
Belgium,  and  I  am  certain  that  not  one  of  the  countries  who 
are  invited  by  the  newspapers  to  put  itself  in  its  place  would 
have  been  able  to  do  better. 

You  can  feel  certain  that  the  King  of  the  Belgians  interests 
himself  personally  in  the  smallest  detail  of  the  administration. 
I  do  not  pretend  that  he  can  superintend  the  acts  of  each  indi- 
vidual, but  what  Government,  what  State  could  do  that? 
But  the  recitals  of  atrocities,  and  of  bad  administration  which 
have  of  late  been  spread  about  are  almost  all,  if  not  all,  pure 
reports.  Naturally,  if  it  is  question  of  seeking  cause  for  a  quar- 
rel there  is  no  difficulty  in  finding  it;  but  if  the  Congo  of 
1885  is  compared  with  the  Congo  of  to-day,  it  must  be  allowed 
that  its  progress  has  been  remarkable. 

The  English  Note  of  the  month  of  August  is  founded,  I  am 
convinced,  on  reports  stamped  with  partialit3\  The  asser- 
tions of  a  missionary  have  been  reproduced,  according  to  whom 
the  natives  flee  at  the  approach  of  the  Congo  State  officials. 
They  fled  before  me  also  when  I  was  there.  The  mere  ap- 
parition of  a  white  man,  the  simple  sight  of  an  unusual  being 
or  object,  puts  them  to  flight.  That  is  part  of  the  animal  in- 
stinct of  self-preservation.  Whites  and  blacks  always  ap- 
proach one  another  for  the  first  time  with  a  general  sentiment 
of  distrust.  Little  by  little  they  learn  to  know  one  another, 
and  this  sentiment  disappears. 

The  Congo  was  in  truth  the  darkest  part  of  Africa.  To-day 
with  its  forests  pierced  and  open,  its  routes,  its  stations,  it  is 
in  advance  of  all  other  African  States.  Take  the  French 
Congo,  German  East  Africa,  Portuguese  West  Africa,  and 
compare  them !  The  Congo  State  prospers  in  a  greater  degree 
than  any  other  part  of  the  black  continent. 

The  Congo  State  is  accused  of  employing  as  soldiers  can- 
nibal Negroes.  When  I  was  on  the  Congo,  and  I  accused  a 
tribe  of  cannibalism  it  replied:  "We  are  not  cannibals,  but 
our  neighbours  are."  The  neighbouring  tribe  said:  "It  is 
not  we,  it  is  the  next  tribe  that  you  will  meet";  and  that 
tribe  referred  us  on  to  the  next,  and  so  on  continually.     They 


Coffee-Drying  Grounds,  Coquilhatville  (Equateur). 


Bakusu  Woman  (Lualaba-Kassai> 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    399 

seemed  to  be  ashamed  of  their  cannibalism.  They  concealed 
it.  Yet  there  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  existence  of  this  prac- 
tice. I  frequently  met  with  trenches  freshly  disturbed,  from 
which  corpses  had  been  taken  to  be  eaten.  It  was  very  sel- 
dom that  I  could  discover  the  guilty.  How  then  in  recruiting 
its  troops  was  the  Congo  State  to  distinguish  the  black  can- 
nibals from  those  who  are  not  cannibals  ? 

I  am  convinced  that  since  I  left  Africa  King  Leopold  has 
done  his  best  to  prevent  all  crime  on  the  Congo.  But  he  is 
no  more  responsible  for  the  crimes  which  may  be  committed 
there  than  for  those  occasionally  committed  on  the  soil  of 
Belgium  itself.  There  are  on  the  Congo  300  officials  who  re- 
port to  the  Governor-General,  who  in  his  turn  addresses  a 
summary  of  these  reports  to  the  King.  They  discharge  their 
mission  under  the  most  difficult  conditions,  and  I  believe  that 
I  may  assert  that  from  the  Governor-General  down  to  the 
humblest  official  there  is  not  one  of  them  guilty  of  cruelty. 
Moreover,  it  is  for  those  who  speak  of  atrocities  to  furnish 
proof  of  them. 

I  kndw  by  experience  what  a  large  number  of  stories  are  put 
forward,  then  refuted,  and  afterwards  resuscitated  year  after 
year.  These  are  legends  for  travellers.  Use  is  made  of  them 
with  every  change  of  the  wind  in  Africa.  Those  who  relate 
them  are  often  the  prey  of  climatic  maladies. 

The  Congo  has  not  the  most  enviable  climate  in  the  world. 
The  maladies  contracted  there  are  often  debilitating,  and 
things  are  seen  and  things  are  described  through  the  malady, 
which  distorts  the  morale  and  changes  the  optic. 

I  had  on  the  Congo  under  my  orders  300  men — English,  Ger- 
mans, Dutch,  Portuguese,  Belgians.  There  were  80  English, 
but  the  majority  were  Belgians.  I  found  no  difference  between 
them.  All  did  their  best,  according  to  their  means.  All  were, 
in  the  course  of  duty,  the  object  of  some  charge.  I  examined 
the  charges  minutely,  and  always  found  them  to  be  without 
foundation.  That  did  not  prevent  these  stories  reaching 
Banana,  and  from  there  Europe.  Well,  that  is  what  hap- 
pened on  the  Congo  in  my  time;  that  is  what  is  happening 
there  to-day. 


400  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  sentiment  that  inspires  the  charges  against  the  Congo 
is  jealousy.  The  Congo  is  succeeding  better  than  any  other 
State  of  Africa. 

I  do  not  think  that  the  Congo  State  would  be  administered 
better  by  France,  the  United  States,  or  Germany.  Under 
French  administration  the  Congo  would  retrogress.  Germany 
would  content  itself  with  fortifying  it  in  a  military  sense. 
And  commerce  does  not  develop  when  it  is  covered  with  a 
coat  of  mail.  Germany  does  not  permit  and  will  not  permit 
the  English  to  penetrate  into  its  territory,  except  under  cer- 
tain restrictions.  England  would  not  have  managed  the 
Congo  better  than  King  Leopold  has  done  if  she  had  been 
mistress  of  it,  as  she  might  have  become  in  1877. 

The  white  man  must  remain  master  of  the  Congo.  Drive 
him  out  of  it,  and  you  will  see  war  arise  anew  between  one 
native  village  and  another,  a  return  to  barbarism.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  govern  so  vast  a  country;  yet,  in  a  limited  number  of 
years,  the  King  of  the  Belgians  has  put  an  end  to  the  horrible 
Arab  slave  trade.  I  do  not  think  there  is  another  sovereign 
living  who  has  done  so  much  for  humanity  as  Leopold  IL 

SIR    HARRY    JOHNSTON,    G.C.M.G.,    K.C.B. 

About  a  year  previous  to  the  publication  of  Stan- 
ley's vindication  of  the  Congo  Administration,  ap- 
peared a  remarkable  book,  entitled  The  Uganda 
Protectorate,  written  by  the  distinguished  English 
traveller,  Sir  Harry  Johnston,  from  which  the  follow- 
ing passage  is  taken: 

In  spite  of  an  element  of  Arab  civilisation  which  the  slave- 
trader  had  certainly  implanted  in  the  Congo  Forest,  he  had 
made  himself  notorious  for  his  ravages  and  cruelties.  Num- 
bers of  natives  had  been  horribly  mutilated,  hands  and  feet 
lopped  off,  and  women's  breasts  cut  away.  These  people  ex- 
plained to  me  that  these  mutilations — which,  as  only  a  Negro 
could,  they  had  survived — had  been  the  work  of  the  Manye- 
ma  slave-trader  and  his  gang,  done  sometimes  out  of  wanton 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    401 

cruelty,  sometimes  as  a  punishment  for  thieving  or  abscond- 
ing. May  it  not  be  that  many  of  the  mutilated  people  of 
whom  we  hear  so  much  in  the  northern  and  eastern  part  of 
the  Congo  Free  State  are  also  the  surviving  results  of  Arab 
cruelty?  I  am  aware  that  it  is  customary  to  attribute  these 
outrages  to  the  native  soldiery  and  police  employed  by  the 
Belgians  to  maintain  order  or  to  collect  taxes;  and  though 
I  am  fully  aware  that  these  native  soldiers  and  police  under 
imperfect  Belgian  administration,  as  under  imperfect  British 
control,  can  commit  all  sorts  of  atrocities  (as  we  know  they 
did  in  Mashonaland  and  in  Uganda),  every  bad  deed  of  this 
description  is  not  to  be  laid  to  their  charge,  for  many  out- 
rages are  the  work  of  the  Arab  traders  and  raiders  in  these 
countries,  and  of  their  apt  pupils  the  Manyemas.  This  much 
I  can  speak  of  with  certainty  and  emphasis:  that  from  the 
British  frontier  near  Fort  George  to  the  limit  of  my  journeys 
into  the  Mbuba  country  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  up  and  down 
the  Semliki,  the  natives  appeared  to  be  prosperous  and  happy 
under  the  excellent  administration  of  the  late  Lieutenant 
Meura  and  his  coadjutor,  Mr.  Karl  Eriksson.  The  extent  to 
which  they  were  building  their  villages  and  cultivating  their 
plantations  within  the  precincts  of  Fort  Mbeni  showed  that 
they  had  no  fear  of  the  Belgians,  while  the  Dwarfs  equally 
asserted  the  goodness  of  the  local  white  men. 

Great  value  attaches  to  the  evidence  of  Sir  Harry 
Johnston,  it  being  impossible  to  impute  to  him  any 
particular  bias.  He  travelled  independently,  visit- 
ing the  Congo  on  three  occasions — 1882-83,  1891-96, 
and  1900.  In  a  letter  published  in  the  Daily  Chron- 
icle (London)  of  28th  September,  1903,  he  thus 
further  expresses  his  opinion  of  the  Congo  Adminis- 
tration : 


•    I  was  present  on  the  Congo  at  the  birth  of  the  Congo  Free 

State.     In  1 882-1 883  I  paid  a  prolonged  visit  of  eight  months 
36 


402  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

to  Stanley.  During  the  course  of  this  visit  I  travelled  up  the 
Congo  nearly  as  far  as  the  point  where  it  crosses  the  Equator. 
I  came  into  continual  contact  with  the  Belgian  officers  and 
officials  who  had  been  sent  out  on  the  part  of  the  Comite 
cV Etudes  du  Haitt-Congo  to  assist  Stanley.  I  may  mention 
that  I  was  "nobody's"  man.  I  paid  my  own  travelling  ex- 
penses, and  had  no  reason  to  espouse  any  one  cause  more 
than  another.  I  conceived,  however,  the  highest  admiration 
for  Sir  Henry  Stanley,  personally,  and  for  the  work  he  was 
doing.  I  convinced  myself  over  and  over  again  by  constant 
cross-examination  of  the  natives  of  the  Congo,  and  of  Zanzi- 
baris  and  Somalis,  that  Sir  Henry  was  always  just  and  never 
cruel,  and  that  the  first  interests  he  had  at  heart  were  those 
of  the  natives  of  Africa.  His  memory  still  lingers  in  all  the 
regions  from  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  to  Zanzibar,  and  any 
one  who  doubts  the  justice  of  my  opinion  has  only  to  do  as  I 
have  done  through  many  years — question  the  natives  as  to 
their  impressions  of  "Bula  Matadi"  (the  Breaker  of  Stones). 
Nor  did  I  at  that  date  see  anything  to  object  to  in  the  con- 
duct of  the  Belgian  officers,  for  many  of  whom  I  entertained 
feelings  of  warm  friendship  and  esteem.  The  work  of  such 
men  as  Nilis,  Van  Gele,  Hanssens,  Coquilhat,  Braconnier, 
Janssen,  and  Roger,  not  to  mention  others,  was  such  as  no 
missionary  could  or  did  find  fault  with. 

And  again : 

Subsequently  when  I  returned  to  the  vicinity  of  those  re- 
gions as  Commissioner  for  British  Central  Africa,  I  came  a 
good  deal  into  contact  with  the  Belgian  officers  sent  to  con- 
trol those  countries.  I  never  received  any  complaints  from 
natives  or  Europeans  at  that  time  which  tended  to  show  that 
the  natives  were  ill-treated  by  the  Belgians. 

Lastly  comes  this  convincing  pronouncement: 

In  1900,  whilst  at  work  in  Uganda,  I  had  occasion  to  visit 
the  adjoining  regions  of  the  Congo   Free  State  along  and 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    403 

across  the  Semliki  River.  In  this  portion  of  the  Congo 
Forest  (into  which  my  expedition  penetrated  for  about  thirty- 
miles  west  of  the  SemUki)  I  questioned  many  natives — Pig- 
mies, Babira,  Bambuba,  Lendu,  Bakonjo,  and  Basongora. 
From  none  of  them  did  I  receive  the  sHghtest  complaint 
as  regards  the  treatment  they  received  from  the  Belgians, 
and  indeed  the  sight  of  their  villages,  plantations,  and  set- 
tlements, the  fact  that  they  so  freely  came  and  talked  to  the 
white  man,  were  sufficient  to  show  that  they  were  perfectly 
content  with  their  present  lot.  The  Belgian  and  Swedish 
officers  whom  I  met  in  this  portion  of  the  territory  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  were  men  of  the  best  character.  In  short, 
this  portion  of  Congo  territory  left  little  to  be  desired,  and  in 
some  respects  was  better  organised  than  the  adjoining  dis- 
tricts of  the  British  Protectorate.  One  Musongora  chief  com- 
plained to  me  that  the  native  soldiers  in  Belgian  employ  had 
taken  awaj'  some  of  his  wives.  He  expressed  himself  so 
dissatisfied  with  this  treatment  that  he  asked  permission  to 
cross  over  into  British  territory.  That  permission  was  given 
him;  but  when  he  found  that  he  had  to  pay  the  hut  tax  on 
Uganda  soil  he  returned  to  his  old  quarters.  In  addition  to 
the  foregoing  experiences  I  might  say  that  I  took  into  my 
employ  about  this  time  natives  of  many  districts  along  the 
Upper  Congo,  from  the  country  of  Bangala  on  the  west  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Aruwimi  on  the  east.  I  did  this  with  the  idea 
of  making  studies  of  their  languages,  and  they  lived  with  me 
for  about  a  year,  accompanying  me  on  all  my  journeys  through 
the  Uganda  Protectorate.  I  did  not  ask  the  permission  of  the 
Belgians  to  recruit  these  people,  for  the  very  good  reason  that, 
having  apparently  complete  liberty  of  action,  they  had  walked 
through  the  Congo  Forest  to  the  British  frontier  to  offer 
themselves  for  work.  It  cannot  be  said  therefore  that  the 
Belgians  selected  people  especially  to  fill  my  ears  with  pleas- 
ing stories  as  to  Belgian  administration.  I  questioned  these 
natives  of  villages  all  along  the  great  northern  bend  of  the 
Congo  Not  one  of  them  had  any  complaint  to  make  against 
the  Belgians.  When  I  was  preparing  to  leave  Uganda  to 
return  to  England  I  offered  these  men   (who  were  accom- 


404  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

panied  by  their  wives)  plots  of  land  in  the  Uganda  Protector- 
ate ;  but  they  were  quite  decided  in  wishing  to  return  to  their 
homes  on  the  Upper  Congo ;  and  so  far  as  I  know  they  did  so, 
as  every  facility  was  given  them  in  that  direction.  It  strikes 
one  that  if  these  particular  people  were  living  under  a  reign 
of  terror  they  would  hardly  have  been  so  eager  to  return  to 
their  homes  with  the  wages  they  had  earned. 

The  absolute  impartiality  of  Sir  Harry  Johnston's 
review  of  the  Congo  Administration  well  appears  in 
the  few  following  words;  in  which  it  will  be  noted, 
that  while  he  claims  no  immaculate  perfection  on 
behalf  of  every  Belgian  official,  he  compares  them 
as  a  body,  and  that  not  to  their  disadvantage,  with 
his  own  countrymen : 

There  are,  no  doubt,  bad  Belgians,  as  there  have  been  bad, 
cruel,  and  wicked  Englishmen  and  Scotchmen,  amongst 
African  pioneers.  In  the  early  days  of  African  enterprise  I 
have  seen  too  many  misdeeds  of  my  own  countr}^men  in 
Africa  to  be  very  keen  about  denouncing  other  nations  for 
similar  faults. 

MAJOR  JAMES    HARRISON 

This  eminent  authority  on  the  Congo  has  recorded 
his  impressions  of  the  social  and  economic  condi- 
tions prevailing  in  that  country,  and  of  the  false 
statements  regarding  them  disseminated  by  inter- 
ested parties,  in  the  following  letter,  which  appeared 
in  the  London  Times  of  June  lo,  1904: 

To  tJie  Editor  of  the  "  Times" 

Sir, — Having  just  returned  from  a  shooting  trip  across  the 
Congo  Free  State  from  the  Nile  to  Boma,  on  the  West  Coast, 
I  naturally  feel  much  interested  in  the  correspondence  now 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    405 

going  on  with  regard  to  that  country.  As  I  came  down  the 
Congo  River  a  copy  of  Mr.  Casement's  report  was  lent  me 
to  read,  and  I  was  more  than  surprised  at  the  contents  of  a 
letter  written  by  Lord  Cromer,  which  was  inserted  as  a  pre- 
lude to  the  more  serious  indictment  following. 

Now,  Sir,  had  this  letter  been  published  alone  it  might  not 
have  seemed  so  serious,  but  taken  in  conjunction  with  what 
followed  it  formed  a  most  damaging  article. 

As  my  experience  of  the  Government  of  the  Lado  Enclave 
is  so  entirely  opposite  to  the  view  taken  of  it  by  Lord  Cromer, 
I  feel  compelled,  in  fairness  to  the  Belgian  officials,  to  give  my 
views  of  the  country  and  its  Government.  That  I  am  not 
alone  in  discovering  so  much  that  is  good  in  the  Belgian  ad- 
ministration of  the  Lado  Enclave  is  vouched  for  by  other  Eng- 
lish officers  who  have  hunted  and  travelled  among  the  natives 
beyond  the  waters  west  of  the  Nile. 

I  assume  from  Lord  Cromer's  report,  and  from  what  I  was 
told  at  Lado,  that  he  only  landed  at  the  Kiro  and  Lado  sta- 
tions, so  that  the  greater  part  of  his  report  must  have  been 
founded  on  inform.ation  supplied  by  others,  which,  besides 
being  often  incorrect,  might  possibly  have  reference  to  times 
gone  by,  when,  I  believe,  a  certain  official  was  promptly  dis- 
missed the  service  for  unfair  treatment  of  the  natives. 

Lord  Cromer  compares  the  deserted  appearance  of  the  west 
banks  of  the  Nile  with  the  east  bank  between  Kiro  and  Lado. 

My  experience  of  this  part  was  that  you  could  hardly  see 
anything  of  the  west  bank,  owing  to  the  channel  lying  well 
over  to  the  east,  and  endless  sudd  stretching  to  the  west.  The 
reasons  for  natives  not  living  near  the  bank  I  give  later  on. 

Again,  Lord  Cromer  contrasts  the  peaceful,  settled  state 
and  the  confidence  of  the  tribes  under  English  rule  on  the  Nile 
as  compared  with  those  on  Belgian  territory;  yet  within  a 
few  months  of  his  visit  a  whole  British  force  was  annihilated 
on  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal,  while  in  the  Game  Ordinance  published 
last  year  it  stated:  "The  whole  of  the  left  bank  of  the  Nile 
is  at  present  closed  to  sportsmen,  owing  to  the  unsettled  state 
of  the  natives." 

Since  my  return  I  see  that  yet  another  British  force  has  been 


4o6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

severely  handled  by  the  natives.  Through  the  whole  of  my 
Congo  trip,  absolutely  alone,  I  wandered  about,  visiting  50 
different  tribes  and  hundreds  of  villages,  armed  as  a  rule  with 
a  camera,  umbrella,  and,  at  times,  a  collecting  gun.  Yet  I 
had  no  unpleasant  experiences;  on  the  contrary,  I  was  re- 
ceived with  kindness  far  different  to  any  I  ever  met  with 
when  hunting  among  British  African  natives. 

As  I  went  up  the  Nile  I  heard  the  same  stories  Lord  Cromer 
did — as  to  how  all  the  natives  were  flying  across  the  river 
from  the  Belgian  country  owing,  I  was  told,  to  ill-treatment. 
As  I  spent  a  month  hunting  all  the  district  40  miles  inland 
from  Lado  and  Kiro,  looked  after  by  the  two  big  Bari  chiefs, 
Kenion  and  Fariala,  I  took  great  interest  in  learning  all  I 
could,  and,  owing  to  my  capitow  talking  Arabic,  the  chiefs' 
favourite  language,  I  had  excellent  chances  for  finding  out 
all  I  wanted. 

To  my  question  as  to  whether  many  of  their  tribes  went 
over  the  river,  and  why,  they  replied:  "A  few  boys  ran  away 
the  other  side,  but  mostly  bad  bo3'-s  who  won't  work."  Asked 
again,  if  a  few  good  men  went,  and,  if  so,  why,  they  answered: 
"  English  pay  in  money ;  some  boys,  if  once  had  money,  like  it 
better  than  being  paid  in  cloth  or  beads,"  but  no  mention  of 
ill-treatment. 

Lord  Cromer  considers  because  the  native  villages  happen 
at  these  particular  posts  to  be  several  hours'  distant,  that  this 
is  also  owing  to  bad  treatment.  I  wish  to  point  out  that  the 
villages  must  either  be  right  on  the  Nile  bank,  or  inland  where 
they  are,  for  the  whole  country  between  is  waterless  during 
four  months.  Another  reason  given  for  not  living  on  the  Nile 
was  that  in  olden  days  the  few  who  did  so  were  all  killed  or 
taken  prisoners  by  the  Dervishes;  hence  the  survivors  kept 
clear  of  waterways. 

Again,  there  are  no  sites  for  villages  near  the  river,  as  nearly 
all  the  banks,  lying  low,  are  covered  with  marsh  a.nd  sudd,  har- 
bouring millions  of  mosquitoes,  whereas  a  few  miles  inland 
there  is  good  water,  not  a  single  mosquito,  plenty  of  game, 
with  good  grass  and  tillage  land. 

When  I  visited  Gondokoro  every  one  was  complaining  at 


I 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    407 

having  the  station  on  the  Nile,  instead  of  a  few  miles  inland, 
for  similar  reasons. 

One  of  the  wisest  rules  of  the  Congo  is  not  to  allow  native 
villages  adjoining  the  posts;  and  I  hear  we  are  copying  the 
same  on  the  West  Coast;  it  means  a  reduction  of  75  per  cent, 
in  sickness. 

That  no  natives  live  near  Lado  arises  from  purely  natural 
causes.  Lord  Cromer  would  find  plenty  of  posts  in  the  in- 
terior, with  thousands  of  natives  settled  as  near  as  they  are 
allowed  to. 

Another  statement,  that  "the  soldiers  are  allowed  full  lib- 
erty to  plunder  the  natives,"  is  by  no  means  correct.  During 
my  journey  I  saw  hundreds  of  soldiers  being  sent  off  on  dif- 
ferent work — such  as  postal.  Government  despatches,  fetching 
in  porters,  etc. ;  but  not  one  ever  left  without  having  received 
cloth,  beads,  or  wire  sufficient  to  purchase  all  necessary  food. 
I  quite  admit  a  few  of  the  soldiers  helped  themselves  now  and 
again,  and  I  found  the  worst  sinners  in  this  respect  were  our 
own  Sierra  Leone  boys,  a  number  of  whom  take  service  in  the 
Congo.  Should  their  acts  be  reported  they  are  quickly  dealt 
with. 

During  my  trip  I  must  have  employed  over  1200  porters. 
I  can  only  say  I  never  came  across  a  more  cheerful,  well- 
disposed  set  of  men.  I  never  had  the  least  trouble  with 
them,  though  asking  them  to  march  30  and  40  miles  a  day. 
How  often  I  thought  of  my  woes  and  worries  in  British  Cen- 
tral Africa,  never  knowing  how  many  porters  would  run  away 
each  night,  though  only  marching  ten  miles  a  day!  Had  all 
the  accounts  of  ill-treatment  and  non-payment  been  true, 
would  men  have  come  in  so  readily  and  worked  for  me  as  these 
carriers  did  ?  Many  an  hour  at  night  I  used  to  spend  getting 
them  to  talk  about  the  country,  its  ways,  and  any  grievances. 
1  found,  naturally,  two  or  three  officers  who  were  evidently 
disliked  (no  doubt  I  will  be  added  to  that  list  after  our  long 
marches);  but,  on  the  other  hand,  they  talked  of  many 
officers  as  their  "white  fathers."  As  for  the  way  in  which 
the  Belgians  have  opened  out  the  country,  it  is  wonderful. 
The  posts  are  now  all  well-built  brick  houses,  and  in  a  few 


4o8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

months'  time  most  of  the  barracks  will  be  similar;  excellent 
roads  connect  many  of  the  posts,  while  all  sorts  of  vegetables 
and  fruit  are  being  grown,  cattle  and  sheep  also  being  intro- 
duced in  many  parts.  Though  I  was  told  in  Khartoum  by 
several  of  our  officers  who  had  been  stationed  on  the  frontier 
how  well  the  Lado  Enclave  was  run,  I  was  quite  astonished 
at  such  progress.  I  am  glad  to  see  my  views  are  shared  by 
Major  Gibbons  and  Captain  Bell,  both  of  whom  have  had 
chances  of  seeing  life  inland  from  the  Nile. 

I  met  during  my  wanderings  several  English  and  American 
traders  having  concessions  both  in  Uganda  and  the  Congo. 
These  men  have  to  visit  all  the  villages.  They  all  said  the 
same  thing — that  there  was  nothing  wrong  with  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  Enclave.  I  also  had  a  long  and  interesting  talk 
with  Father  Maguire,  of  the  Roman  Catholic  mission  station 
at  Amadi.  He  spoke  most  warmly  in  praise  of  the  work  done 
by  the  Belgians  in  such  a  few  years.  He  said:  "Think  of 
what  this  country  was  only  a  few  years  ago,  overrun  with 
Dervishes,  decimated  by  the  slave-dealers,  the  natives  all 
cannibals — and  now  you  walk  in  here  with  only  an  umbrella 
as  a  protection." 

I  can  only  add  that  I  admire  the  excellent  work  being  done 
by  such  men  as  Commissioner  General  George  Witerwulge, 
Commandants  Ravello  (Lado),  Menwnaer  (Redjaf),  Wacquez 
(Buta),  Holmes  (Dungu),  Grazione  (Lodka),  and  all  the  many 
other  officers,  too  numerous  to  mention,  who  are  quietly  work- 
ing hard,  day  after  day,  opening  out  those  vast  regions  to 
civilisation;  and  I  shall  never  forget  the  kindness  met  with 
at  the  hands  of  all,  from  the  Nile  to  Boma. 

I  must  apologise  for  trespassing  on  your  valuable  space, 

but  if  I  were  to  try  and  refute  many  of  the  statements  I  have 

seen  in  print  I  should  have  to  trespass  considerably  more. 

Yours  truly, 

James  J.  Harrison. 
Bachelors'  Club,  London, 

June  6th. 

P.  S. — Since  writing  the  above  I  see  in  to-day's  Morning 
Post  quotations  from  some  English  trader  in  Matadi.     He 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    409 

says:  "From  all  I  hear,  things  up  country  are  worse  than 
ever.  In  the  Mayumbe  country,  behind  Boma  even,  the 
State  has  begun  collecting  rubber  by  force  from  the  natives." 

As  I  happened  to  travel  home  on  the  same  boat  as  Mr.  Ave, 
an  American  missionary,  who  has  for  some  years  been  in  charge 
of  this  Mayumbe  district,  his  statements  to  me  may  be  of 
interest.  Mr.  Ave  said  all  these  reports  were  untrue;  that 
the  district  was  governed  by  an  officer  who  was  most  kind  and 
considerate  in  all  his  dealings  with  the  natives;  that  he  had 
carefully  readjusted  the  taxation  so  as  to  fall  as  fairly  as  pos- 
sible with  regard  to  villages  and  population  of  same;  and 
that  the  officer  was  universally  respected  by  all  the  natives  as 
a  kind  and  just  man.  The  same  Morning  Post  article  seems  to 
be  slightly  inconsistent.  It  quotes  one  Equatorial  mission- 
ary as  saying  that  "the  white  man  will  be  swept  out  of  the 
Congo  and  a  revolution  will  take  place  within  two  years," 
while  farther  on  it  quotes  the  Matadi  trader  "as  deprecating 
the  founding  of  a  new  post  for  i,ooo  soldiers  at  Bomasundi." 

Surely,  if  the  first  assumption  is  correct,  the  wisdom  of  the 
second  is  sound.  I  am  glad  to  find  since  my  return  that  few 
people  take  notice  of  or  believe  those  wonderful  statements, 
copied  from  a  more  wonderful  paper — the  West  African  Mail. 

This  is  the  way  Major  James  Harrison  a  few  days 
later  demolishes  a  side  issue  raised  by  Mr.  Morel. 
The  letter  is  addressed  to  the  Editor  of  the  Morning 
Post  (London),  and  appeared  in  that  journal  of  June 
25,  1904: 

Mr.  Morel  in  your  paper  to-day  himself  answers  the  question 
asked  him  by  others,  viz..  Why  has  the  Congo  Reform  Associa- 
tion noticed  my  statements?  If  they  were  incorrect  surely 
his  letter  would  have  dealt  with  them,  instead  of  which  all 
he  can  say  is  that  I  am  attacking  a  man  of  Mr.  Casement's 
standing. 

While  quite  ready  to  take  full  responsibility  for  any  letter 
or  interview  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Morel,  I  absolutely  deny  having 
attacked  the  character  of  our  Consul  in  any  way,  nor  did  I 


4IO  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

find  in  Boma  Belgian  officers  "showering  abuse"  on  him. 
Like  myself  they  (and  most  people  over  here  with,  whom  I 
have  discussed  it)  did  not  think  it  a  wise  appointment,  and 
certainly  it  placed  Mr.  Casement  in  an  awkward  and  un- 
enviable position;  but  after  all  he  would  only  carry  out  his 
orders.  But  as  to  the  travelling  about  on  a  mission  steamer 
I  most  strongly  assert  it  was  a  most  unfortunate  error.  It  is 
well  known  to  all  natives  on  which  side  most  of  the  Protestant 
and  Baptist  missionaries  are,  and  to  expect  them  to  give 
contradictory  evidence  in  such  circumstances  was  attributing 
to  them  virtues  unpossessed.  I  have  noted  Mr.  Morel  places 
much  of  the  Belgian  evidence  (say,  the  Epondo  case)  out  of 
court  for  the  selfsame  reasons.  After  the  using  of  a  mission 
steamer  I  hardly  see  that  any  work  Mr.  Casement  might  have 
been  interested  in  originally  could  make  any  difference.  Still, 
for  his  own  sake  it  might  be  wise  if  Mr.  Morel  stated  exactly 
what  occupations  or  duties  he  was  interested  in,  say,  between 
1885  and  1900.  I  trust  Mr.  Morel  in  his  next  letter  will  deal 
more  fully  with  my  "absurdities"  put  forward  in  my  letter, 
and  not  have  to  simply  try  and  find  an  imaginary  attack  on  a 
gentleman  for  whom,  through  mutual  friends,  I  have  every 
respect. 

My  object  in  entering  this  Congo  controversy  is  to  try  and 
place  before  the  English  public  a  more  broad-minded  view  of 
the  question,  and  while  making  allowances  for  the  well-nigh 
insuperable  difficulties  the  Congo  Government  have  had  to 
contend  with,  at  the  same  time  try  to  help  on  improvements 
for  the  future,  rather  than  dwell  entirely  on  the  past.  I  can 
assure  Mr.  Morel  that  I  am  by  no  means  alone  in  my  "ab- 
surd views,"  but  will  be  supported  by  others  who  have  lately 
crossed  the  whole  Congo  State,  blessed  with  an  open  mind. 

Yours,  &c., 

James  J.  Harrison. 

Bachelors'  Club,  London, 

June  24th. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

TESTIMONY  OF  TRAVELLERS  AND  THINKERS 
(Continued) 

THE  three  authorities  whose  testimony  was  given 
in  the  preceding  chapter  are  all  distinguished 
travellers  of  British  nationality.      It  is  now 
proposed  to  lay  before  the  reader  the  opinions  held 
upon  Belgian  Administration  in  the  Congo 
by  three  well-known  Americans — Mr.  James     ^«"ca° 

-'  "^  Opinion. 

Gustavus  Whiteley  of  Baltimore,  member 
of  the  Institute  of  International  Law,  who  has  repre- 
sented the  United  States  Government  at  several  in- 
ternational congresses;  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Leslie,  a 
missionary  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union;  and  Mr.  Mohun,  a  former  United  States 
Consul  at  Boma. 

MR.    JAMES    G.    WHITELEY 

It  is  unfortunate  that  so  many  false  impressions  about  the 
Congo  have  been  accepted  without  examination.  For  exam- 
ple, there  is  a  popular  belief  that  the  King  runs  the  Congo 
"  for  revenue  only,"  and  that  he  oppresses  the  natives  in  order 
to  extort  money  from  them.  The  exact  opposite  is  the  truth. 
The  King  receives  no  revenue  from  the  Congo  Government; 
on  the  contrary  the  State  owes  its  very  existence  to  the  gen- 
erosity of  the  King,  who  advanced  several  million  dollars  to 
keep  the  Government  going  in  its  early  struggle  for  existence. 

411 


412  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

It  is  true  that  there  are  in  the  Congo  extensive  Crown  lands, 
the  revenue  from  which  belongs  to  the  King,  but  His  Majesty- 
refuses  to  take  the  receipts  from  this  land  and  has  turned  the 
money  into  a  fund  for  the  erection  of  schools,  the  encourage- 
ment of  science,  and  similar  purposes.  He  does  not  even 
manage  the  fund  himself,  but  has  placed  it  in  the  hands  of 
three  trustees. 

I  have  seen  the  statement  in  several  newspapers  that  the 
Congo  State  was  created  by  the  Berlin  Conference  in  1885 
and  placed  in  the  hands  of  King  Leopold  for  administration,  the 
Powers  reserving  a  sort  of  right  of  guardianship  over  it.  This 
is  entirely  erroneous.  The  Congo  was  a  sovereign  State  before 
the  Berlin  Conference  was  thought  of.  The  first  official  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  new  State  came  from  the  United  States 
in  the  spring  of  1884.  It  was  afterwards  formally  recognised 
by  the  other  nations,  and  it  entered  the  Berlin  Conference  on 
an  equality  with  the  other  Powers.  It  has  never  placed 
itself  under  the  guardianship  of  any  Power  or  collection  of 
Powers.  It  has  no  connection  with  Belgium  except  the  fact 
that  King  Leopold  happens  to  be  king  of  each  of  them.  The 
two  Governments  are  entirely  independent. 

One  of  the  great  achievements  of  the  Congo  State  has  been 
the  suppression  of  the  Arab  slave-traders,  who  were  in  the 
habit  of  invading  Central  Africa,  carrying  oif  slaves  to  the 
eastern  markets,  and  laying  waste  the  country  through  which 
they  passed.  It  is  estimated  that  100,000  natives  were  killed 
each  year  in  these  slave  raids.  I  recently  saw  an  erroneous 
statement  to  the  effect  that  the  slave  raids  are  still  carried  on, 
and  that  they  are  encouraged  by  King  Leopold  and  his  agents 
as  a  means  of  revenue.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  King  or 
his  Government  could  reap  any  profit  by  encouraging  the  slave- 
raiders  to  destroy  the  villages,  and  kill  off  a  hundred  thou- 
sand or  so  of  the  inhabitants.  Such  lack  of  logic  is  damaging 
to  the  case  of  the  gentlemen  who  put  it  forward  as  a  serious 
argument.  As  Lord  Westbury  once  said  to  a  young  English 
barrister:  "Never  make  a  mistake  in  your  logic;  the  facts 
are  always  at  your  disposal." 

In  this  case,  however,  the  anti-Congo  critics  have  availed 


w 


(^ 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    413 

themselves  of  both  false  logic  and  false  "facts."  The  facts 
are  that  the  slave-raiders  were  finally  vanquished  and  driven 
out  by  the  Congo  forces  in  the  early  nineties,  after  a  severe 
struggle  and  at  the  cost  of  much  Belgian  blood.  As  the 
present  Viceroy  of  India  said  some  years  ago:  "The  Congo 
Free  State  has  done  a  great  work  and  by  its  administration 
the  cruel  raids  of  the  Arab  slave-dealers  have  ceased  to  exist 
over  many  thousand  square  miles." 

Another  prevalent  error  about  the  Congo  Government  is  in 
regard  to  the  treatment  of  the  natives  by  the  officials.  An 
impression  has  got  abroad  that  there  are  many  atrocities 
committed. 

There  have  been  cases  in  which  the  natives  have  been  mal- 
treated by  minor  officials,  but  these  are  isolated  cases,  and 
are  severely  punished  by  the  authorities.  Such  cases  have 
occurred  in  all  public  services  where  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  govern  inferior  '  aces.  Such  things  have  happened 
in  the  Philippines,  in  British  Africa,  and  in  India.  No  colo- 
nising nation  can  cast  a  stone  at  King  Leopold  on  that  score. 
Among  a  large  number  of  officials  scattered  over  a  vast  terri- 
tory there  will  often  be  one  or  two  wicked  stewards  who  de- 
spitefully  use  the  natives.  All  that  any  State  can  do  is  to 
keep  vigilant  watch  and  to  punish  the  wrongdoers,  and  this 
the  Congo  State  has  done.  It  has  even  established  a  Com- 
mission for  the  protection  of  the  natives.  By  the  decree  of 
1896,  this  Commission  consisted  of  seven  members,  three 
being  Catholic  priests  and  four  Protestant  missionaries. 

It  has  been  said,  among  other  things,  that  the  State  prac- 
tically enslaves  the  natives  by  forcing  them  to  pay  a  tax  in 
labour.  The  tax  is  light.  According  to  a  statement  made 
the  other  day  by  Baron  de  Favereau,  it  consists  of  40  hours' 
work  per  month,  and  for  this  work  they  are  paid  at  the  regular 
rate  of  wages  obtained  in  the  district.  It  is  a  tax  which  helps 
the  State  and  also  helps  the  native,  for  it  teaches  him  to 
work.  It  is  one  of  the  most  civilising  influences  in  African 
colonisation,  for  it  is  only  by  teaching  habits  of  industry  to 
the  natives  that  civilisation  can  make  any  progress  in  the 
Dark  Continent. 


414  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  detractors  of  the  Congo  administration  make  a  great 
outcry,  but  as  Burke  said  in  one  of  his  celebrated  speeches: 
"You  must  not  think  because  the  crickets  make  a  great  noise 
that  they  are  the  only  inhabitants  of  the  field.  The  cattle 
browsing  in  the  shade  make  less  stir,  but  they  are  infinitely 
more  important."  Those  who  cry  out  against  the  Congo  are 
a  small  band,  and  generally  of  small  importance.  Their  evi- 
dence is  light  in  comparison  with  the  testimony  of  such  men 
as  the  Count  de  Smet  de  Naeyer,  the  Baron  van  Eetvelde, 
Baron  Wahis,  the  Chevalier  Descamps,  and  Mr.  Nys,  but  if 
these  witnesses  be  considered  as  in  any  way  prejudiced  on 
account  of  their  official  positions,  you  have  only  to  look  at  the 
evidence  of  Sir  Harry  Johnston,  late  British  Commissioner  to 
Uganda,  as  well  as  the  evidence  of  such  men  as  Cardinal 
Lavigerie,  Paul  Leroy-Beaulieu,  the  great  authority  on  po- 
litical economy,  Mr.  Pickersgill,  the  British  Consul,  besides 
the  missionaries,  such  as  the  Rev.  G.  Grenfell,  of  the  British 
Baptist  Missionary  Society,  Mgr.  Augouard,  Rev.  Holman 
Bentley,  Father  van  Hencxthoven,  Rev.  Herbert  S.  Smith, 
Mgr.  Streicher,  Rev.  Lawson  Forfeit,  Father  Gabriel,  and  Rev. 
W.  Verner  of  the  American  Presbyterian  Mission. 

The  Congo  State  furnishes  a  model  for  civilisation  in  new 
countries.  A  great  work  has  been  accomplished  in  Equa- 
torial Africa,  and,  as  a  distinguished  missionary  said,  "Pos- 
terity will  place  the  name  of  Leopold  at  the  head  of  human 
benefactors  for  the  princely  enterprise,  perseverance,  and 
sacrifices  contributed  by  him  in  such  a  cause." 

THE    REV.    W.    H.    LESLIE 

In  a  recent  number  of  the  Missionary  Review  of 
the  World,  a  magazine  pubUshed  by  Messrs.  Funk  & 
Wagnalls  of  New  York,  there  appeared  an  article 
written  by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  LesHe,  a  missionary  of 
the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union,  stationed  in 
the  Congo.  In  that  article  Mr.  Leslie  refers  to  the 
exceeding  degradation  of  the  Congo  people  twenty 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    415 

years  ago.  He  states  that,  naturally,  not  a  little 
evil  remains,  that  immorality  and  various  heathen 
practices  are  still  prevalent.  But  he  speaks  with 
much  enthusiasm  of  the  social  and  moral  uplifting 
and  the  industrial  development  within  that  twenty 
years.  He  says4;hat  the  people  are  learning  to  work, 
are  learning  to  read  and  write,  are  clothing  them- 
selves, and  are  building  better  houses.  In  other 
words,  they  are  gradually  adopting  the  manners  and 
customs  of  civilisation. 

MR.    MOHUN 

Of  course  you  must  understand  that  for  the  moment  I  am 
in  the  service  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  a  great  many- 
people  might  consider  anything  I  should  say  in  favour  of  the 
Congo  as  being  biased;  but  I  can  assure  you  that,  in  my 
opinion,  it  would  be  impossible  for  any  one  to  give  other  than 
a  favourable  report  on  the  work  of  the  Free  State  in  the  East- 
em  province.  The  administration  is  excellent.  The  country 
is  quite  quiet  from  the  Falls  to  Tanganyika.  The  native 
tribes  seem  contented  and  happy,  and  are  paid  by  the  Govern- 
ment for  every  stroke  of  work  they  do.  The  price  of  rubber 
has  increased,  and  every  man  who  brings  in  rubber  receives 
pay  for  it.  Formerly  robbery  and  murder  existed  to  a  great 
extent  among  the  native  tribes,  but  are  now  quite  rare;  and 
the  old  "Mwavi,"  or  ordeal  by  drinking  poison,  seems  to  be 
disappearing.  Justice  is  administered  with  an  impartial 
hand,  and  I  firmly  believe  the  natives  are  beginning  to  ap- 
preciate the  benefits  of  good  government. 

Some  months  ago  a  woman  was  shot  dead  near  my  camp. 
I  immediately  sent  for  the  chief,  and  told  him  I  wanted  the 
murderer  arrested  and  brought  in.  Three  hours  later  he  re- 
turned with  him  and  also  two  accessories  to  the  crime,  to- 
gether with  all  the  stuffs  they  had  stolen  from  the  woman. 
The  principal  actor  in  the  crime  was  tried  and  hanged,  while 


4'6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

the  others  received  long  terms  of  punishment.  This  incident 
is  merely  cited  to  show  that  when  the  natives  are  living  in 
a  contented  way,  and  are  satisfied  with  their  surroundings, 
they  will  assist  the  Europeans  wherever  possible.  I  could  enu- 
merate a  dozen  cases  where  natives  have  themselves  arrested 
and  brought  to  justice  thieves,  ravishers,&c.,  of  their  own  ac- 
cord. They  never  received  a  present  for  these  services.  In 
the  Manyema,  which  is  very  thickly  populated,  a  great  market 
has  been  established  at  Vieux  Kasongo,  and  this  serves  as  a 
meeting-place  for  thousands  twice  a  week.  Caravans  come 
from  Ujiji  nearly  every  month,  and  the  natives  journey  there 
by  a  15  or  20  days'  march.  I  never  saw  a  disturbance  at  the 
market,  either  going  or  returning.  By  common  consent  guns, 
knives,  spears,  and  knobkerries  are  excluded  from  articles  of 
exchange,  and  the  men  only  carry  thin  walking-sticks.  There 
are  no  soldiers  guarding  the  market,  but  immunity  from 
thieves  is  guaranteed  by  some  ten  or  twelve  native  policemen, 
who  receive  no  pay,  and  are  highly  pleased  to  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  showing  their  authority. 

I  have  been  astonished  in  coming  down  river  from  Kasongo 
to  the  coast  to  see  what  extraordinary  changes  have  taken 
place.  First,  the  administration  is  now  established  on  a  good, 
firm  basis,  and  all  the  officials  take  an  intelligent  interest  in 
their  work,  with  the  result  that  scandals  are  quite  a  thing  of 
the  past.  The  stations  are  all  splendidly  and  solidly  built  in 
brick,  and  the  grounds  are  laid  out  in  a  very  pleasing  way. 
The  transport  service  by  canoe  between  Kasongo  and  Stanley 
Falls  goes  without  a  hitch,  and  thousands  of  loads  go  up  river 
every  year,  absolutely  unguarded,  and  the  loss  by  theft  is 
almost  nil.  The  steamer  service  between  the  Falls  and  Pool 
is  good,  and  an  enormous  improvement  over  the  old  days, 
especially  in  the  matter  of  messing.  The  large  steamers 
Hainaut  and  Brabant  are  most  imposing-looking  craft,  and 
comfortably  fitted  up.  They  carry  200  tons  of  cargo  and  600 
troops,  in  addition  to  40  white  passengers.  The  new  steamer 
La  Flandre,  of  250  tons,  is  on  the  slip  at  Leo,  and  I  think  will 
make  her  first  trip  in  February  next  year  (1904).  She  is  to 
be  lighted  by  electricity.     So  far  as  I  know,  the  whole  coimtry 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    417 

is  tranquil,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  portion  of  the  Ban- 
gala  district  north  of  Bumba. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  during  the  past  for  travellers  who 
have  been  in  the  Congo  State  to  run  it  down  in  every  way, 
but  it  gives  me  the  greatest  pleasure  to  be  able  to  affirm  that 
only  a  most  captious  critic  would  be  able  to  find  fault  with  its 
administration  to-day. 

With  regard  to  specific  pronouncement  on  the  alleged  mur- 
der of  several  hundred  natives  who  failed  to  supply  the  re- 
quired quota  of  rubber,  I  can  say  nothing,  it  having  been  out 
of  my  district.  Personally,  I  do  not  believe  it,  excepting  in 
a  vastly  modified  degree ;  and  I  must  point  out  that  the  au- 
thorities are  taking  such  steps  as  must  bring  any  offenders  to 
summar}^  justice.  I  absolutely  deny  the  absurd  attempt  to 
fasten  responsibilities  upon  the  authorities  for  any  acts  of 
violence  they  cannot  control  from  this  side.  Such  acts  com- 
mitted while  I  was  there  would  have  been  reported,  and  it  is 
evident  the}^  are  now  taking  steps  to  prevent,  in  so  far  as 
possible,  any  recurrence  of  them.  In  all  human  institutions 
there  are  imperfections ;  here  and  there  employees  prove  them- 
selves unworthy  of  the  trust  reposed' in  them;  but  these,  in 
my  opinion,  are  exceptions  rather  than  the  rule. 


CHAPTER   XXXIV 

TESTIMONY  OF  TRAVELLERS  AND  THINKERS 

{Contintied) 

ALEXANDER    DAVIS 

THE  following  valuable  testimony  is  extracted 
from  an  interesting  volume  written  by  this 
gentleman,  entitled    The   Native  Problem  in 
South  Africa: 

The  Congo  atrocities  campaign  is  fed  upon  just  a  sufficient 
substratum  of  truth  to  make  it  plausible.  But  the  public  in 
their  administered  sentimentality  travel  very  wide  of  the  true 
case.  After  a  full  career  of  blood-curdling  horrors  unhesitat- 
ingly placed  at  the  door  of  the  administration  in  highest  au- 
thority irrespective  of  conditions  of  environment  or  personal 
responsibility,  a  Sir  Harry  Johnston,  accepted  authority,  in 
plenitude  of  personal  knowledge  and  experience  presents  a 
rock  of  fact  which  checks  the  wave  of  misrepresentation. 

In  the  Congo  Free  State  in  addition  to  the  superior  council 
to  advise  the  King  in  Belgium,  the  Governor  General  has  the 
assistance  of  a  similar  nominated  body  at  Boma.  Local  con- 
ditions here  do  not  admit  at  present  of  following  the  French 
system,  but  it  is  guided  largely  in  its  deliberations  by  the 
reports  and  advice  of  the  district  commissioners  who  with  the 
co-operation  of  the  local  chiefs  and  their  own  officials  form 
really  limited  autonomous  administrations. 

Turning  to  the  Congo  Free  State  the  general  division  of  the 
territory,  from  an  administrative  point  of  view,  is  based  on  the 

418 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    419 

districts  at  the  head  of  each  of  which  is  a  district  commis- 
sioner representing  the  State.  The  commissioner  is  assisted 
by  sub-commissioners,  but  is  alone  responsible  for  the  good 
order  of  his  district.  Their  principal  instructions,  on  which 
the  State  lays  great  stress,  are  to  maintain  friendly  relations 
with  the  natives  and  wherever  possible  to  prevent  or  patch  up 
intertribal  disputes;  they  are  also  charged  with  abolishing 
as  far  as  possible  barbarous  customs  and  especially  human 
sacrifices  and  cannibalism,  still  practised  over  a  large  extent 
of  the  territory.  ...  In  close  co-operation  with  the 
district  commissioner  is  the  native  chief  or  chiefs  of  the  dis- 
trict. The  institution  and  recognition  of  these  are  encouraged 
by  the  State  in  order  to  improve  the  relations  between  it  and 
the  natives,  to  consolidate  authority  over  individuals,  to 
ameliorate  their  condition,  and  to  facilitate  their  regular  con- 
tribution to  the  development  of  the  country.  The  chiefs  have, 
as  a  rule,  to  be  first  recognised  as  such  by  native  custom,  and 
are  then  officially  recognised  by  the  Government,  and  receive 
a  certificate  to  that  effect.  They  are  allowed  to  exercise 
their  usual  authority  according  to  native  usage  and  custom, 
provided  the  same  be  not  contrary  to  public  order  and  is  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  State.  They  are  held  per- 
sonally responsible  for  their  tribe's  supply  of  public  labour  as 
notified  to  them  annually.  The  acknowledged  native  chiefs 
number  258. 

The  safeguards  provided  by  the  co-operation  of  the  chiefs, 
and  the  supervision  of  the  central  authority  are  now  on  the 
Congo  supplemented,  as  far  as  human  action  under  such  condi- 
tions can  go,  by  a  very  thorough  organisation  of  the  judicial 
side  of  the  Government.  It  has  pleased  many  of  the  critical 
theorists  who  have  attacked  the  Congo  Free  State  to  say  that 
this  latter  has  been  established  merely  as  a  blind  to  the  actions 
of  the  administration.  It  may  be  merely  remarked  that  no 
infant  struggling  State  is  likely  to  go  to  the  great  expense  of 
such  an  elaborate  and  widely  organised  system  of  justice  as 
has  now  been  called  into  existence  on  the  Congo  pour  rire,  and 
furthermore  that  jurists  of  the  character  of  those  now  serving 
on  the  Congo  are  not  those  capable  of  lending  themselves  to 


420  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

such  practices.  A  certain  amount  of  latitude  must  of  course 
be  made  for  the  different  conditions  in  individual  countries, 
especially  when  in  a  state  of  savagery,  but  generally  speaking 
the  Congo  tribunals  do  their  duty  as  well  as  similar  ones  in 
British  colonies. 

The  Sovereign  and  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
have  stated  over  and  over  again  that  they  desire  justice  to  be 
rendered  impartially,  and  that  as  it  is  necessary  that  offences 
committed  by  natives  should  not  remain  unpunished,  so 
penal  laws  must  also  be  applied  to  the  whites  who  are  guilty 
of  illegal  doings.  The  mere  fact  of  having  constituted  a 
superior  court  of  appeal  with  judges  of  different  nationalities 
and  of  appointing  foreign  lawyers  and  magistrates  as  judges 
and  officials  of  the  lower  courts  in  the  interior  of  the  country 
is  a  proof,  and  a  more  than  evident  guarantee,  of  the  impar- 
tiality and  seriousness  of  the  judicial  administration  aimed 
at.  The  writer  holds  no  brief  for  the  Congo  Free  State ;  rather 
the  contrary  in  fact,  but  in  common  fairness  after  a  very  lengthy 
study  of  its  judicial  machinery,  laws,  and  decrees,  and  the  in- 
structions given  to  its  officials,  he  finds  it  difficult  to  conceive 
what  more  King  Leopold  could  have  done  to  safeguard  its  in- 
ternal affairs  than  has  now  been  done — given  the  peculiar  con- 
ditions of  the  country.  The  abuses  which  have  from  time 
to  time  arisen  in  the  past  have  been  due,  as  far  as  one  ac- 
quainted with  similar  conditions  in  West  Africa  can  see,  to 
three  things,  viz. :  (i)  to  the  abuse  of  power  by  agents  of  the 
concessionaire  companies  before  the  State  had  fully  realised 
the  necessity  of  keeping  a  sharp  control  over  these  semi-inde- 
pendent individuals;  (2)  to  the  want  of  experience  of  early 
officials ;  and  (3)  to  the  lack  of  trained  colonial  servants  whose 
known  antecedents  and  constitutions  fitted  them  for  isolated 
and  arduous  responsibility  in  an  unhealthy,  tropical,  and  sav- 
age country.  It  is  only  right  to  add,  however,  that  though 
isolated  misdeeds  may  still  continue  to  occur  here  as  every- 
where else,  the  measures  now  in  force  guard  as  far  as  possible 
against  a  repetition  of  the  former  regrettable  occurrences,  and 
where  these  occur  the  offenders  are  brought  to  trial  without 
delay. 


Public  Library,  Matadi. 


Soldiers'  Mess  at  Coquilhatville,  (Equateur). 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    421 

The  native  idea  represents  that  of  primitive  society  every- 
where in  the  world,  the  European  that  of  latter-day  civilisa- 
tion; and  if  this  were  always  borne  in  mind,  less  nonsense 
would  be  written  by  those  ill-informed  sentimentalists  who 
insist  on  treating  the  former  on  the  lines  of  the  latter. 

Nothing  is  more  astounding  in  regard  to  the  Congo  cam- 
paign— to  take  a  very  flagrant  case  in  point — than  the  utter 
ignorance  displayed  by  those  who,  while  violently  denouncing 
every  detail  of  Congo  administration,  appear  to  be  totally  un- 
aware either  of  the  past  history  of  social  evolution,  of  modem 
civilisation  in  Europe,  or  of  the  conditions  existing  in  other 
African  countries  at  the  present  day. 

We  have  here  (British  Central  Africa)  admitted,  as  in 
Uganda  where  we  have  shown  that  it  has  been  actually  carried 
out,  the  right  of  the  British  Crown  to  assume  ownership  of 
"vacant  lands,"  and  the  principle  enunciated  that  the  reserves 
allotted  must  be  sufficient  to  allow  of  the  lying  fallow  of  the 
ground  for  a  period  of  three  years  in  addition  to  allowing  a 
proportion  for  the  natural  increase  of  the  family.  Had  the 
same  principles  set  forth  above  been  applied  to  the  early  days 
to  British  West  Africa  that  country  would  be  far  more  pros- 
perous and  advanced  than  is  the  case  to-day. 

Bearing  these  facts  in  mind  it  is  possible  to  understand 
more  fully  the  situation  on  the  Congo  where  the  general  sys- 
tem has  been  pursued  of  assuming  possession  of  the  vacant 
lands  and  allotting  to  natives  reserves  throughout  the  country, 
though  it  may  be  remarked  that  on  the  plea  of  conquest  alone 
the  State  has  a  valid  title  to  a  large  part  of  the  country  apart 
from  that  set  forth. 

In  the  case  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  however,  the  opposite 
course  has  been  taken,  i.  e.,  the  State  has  undertaken  the 
direct  exploitation  of  its  private  domains,  the  profits  realised 
being  allotted  to  public  works  and  the  expenses  of  administra- 
tion ;  and  without  stopping  to  examine  the  necessities  of 
the  case  its  critics  have  eagerly  seized  on  this  as  a  point  of 
attack. 

When  criticisms,  however,  are  raised  against  the  very  com- 
plete system  of  land  tenure  now  in  existence  on  the  Congo  as 


42  2  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

regards  the  State,  non-natives  and  natives,  it  is  as  well  to  re- 
member that  the  exploitation  of  the  land  by  the  State  is  an 
after  and  separate  act  quite  unconnected  with  the  assumption 
of  sovereign  powers  over  the  land  in  the  State,  which  latter  is 
in  accord  with  general  European  and  universal  American  cus- 
tom, though  after  all  whether  a  State  raises  mone^^  for  public 
revenues  by  selling,  leasing,  or  by  personally  exploiting  the 
State  lands  seems  to  be  a  mere  matter  of  detail  in  which  the 
principle  of  the  action  is  exactly  the  same.  En  passant  it 
may  be  remarked  that  the  Royal  Niger  Comj)any,  though  an 
administration,  raised  its  principal  revenue  and  paid  its  divi- 
dends by  its  trade — not  by  duties  or  taxes. 

Further  south,  getting  down  to  the  Congo  again,  we  find  a 
State  which,  sharing  these  views,  has  the  courage  of  its  convic- 
tions and  acts  upon  them  to  the  great  scandal  of  our  own 
Exeter  Hall  set,  no  doubt,  but  to  the  very  marked  improve- 
ment of  the  native  races  affected  as  well  as  to  the  development 
and  opening  up  of  the  State. 

It  will  have  been  observed  in  what  special  terms 
Mr.  Davis  repudiates  personal  interest  in  champion- 
ing the  Congo  Administration  against  its  detractors. 
Should  any  reader  be  so  sceptical  as  to  question  the 
accuracy  of  that  repudiation,  attention  is  invited  to 
the  following  declarations  by  three  English  states- 
men, two  of  them  of  high  political  attainment,  and 
all  three  by  social  position  and  actual  record  of 
approved  bona- fides. 

VISCOUNT  CURZON,  VICEROY  AND  GOVERNOR-GENERAL 

OF    INDIA 

It  is  only  fair  to  remember  that  the  Congo  State  has  done 
a  great  work,  and  by  its  administration  the  cruel  raids  of 
Arab  slave-dealers  have  ceased  to  exist  over  many  thousands 
of  square  miles. 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    423 

THE    LATE    MARQUESS    OF    SALISBURY,    K.G.,    PREMIER 
OF    THE    BRITISH    PARLIAMENT 

Look  at  the  Congo  State.  Everything  has  not  gone  there 
as  well  as  could  be  wished,  but  still  a  great  domination  is  main- 
tained. There  are  two  sets  of  opinions;  but  what  is  un- 
doubtedly true  is  that  Belgium — a  very  much  less  powerful 
country  than  Great  Britain — has  been  able  to  maintain  the 
dominion  of  her  King  over  a  territory  larger  than  the  Sudan. 

THE    MARQUESS    OF    SALISBURY 

Lord  Cranborne,  now  Marquess  of  Salisbury,  declared,  during 
the  debate  of  20th  May,  1903,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  that 
"There  was  no  doubt  that  the  administration  of  the  Congo 
Government  had  been  marked  by  a  very  high  degree  of  a 
certain  kind  of  administrative  development.  There  were 
steamers  upon  the  river,  hospitals  had  been  established,  and 
all  the  machinery  of  elaborate  judicial  and  police  systems  had 
been  set  up." 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

TESTIMONY  OF  TRAVELLERS  AND  THINKERS 
{Concluded) 


A 


MONG  the  denunciators  of  the  Congo  Adminis- 
tration a  prominent  place  must  be  assigned  to 

DR.    H.    GRATTAN    GUINNESS 

{English) 

a  part  medical,  part  missionar} ,  wholly  illogical  per- 
verter  of  facts.  The  plimges  made  by  this  eccentric 
individual  into  the  depths  of  human  credulity  would 
certainly  receive  no  attention  in  this  place  but  for 
the  strange  circumstance  that  some  people  have 
actually  so  far  belied  their  intelligence  as  to  accept 
them  without  investigation.  Strange  to  relate,  Mr. 
Booker  Washington  (a  singular  lapse  of  sagacity  in 
a  man  so  generally  intelligent)  is  among  those  whose 
credulity  has  been  abused  by  stories  of  strings  of 
Negroes'  hands  being  set  to  dry  in  the  sun,  the  said 
hands  having  been  cut  off  from  natives  by  wicked 
European  officials  of  the  Congo  Administration  as  a 
punishment  for  failure  to  collect  a  sufficiency  of 
rubber,  etc. 

In  the  course  of  a  recent  lecture  in  Scotland,  Dr. 
Guinness  said :   "To  our  knowledge  the  natives  never 

424 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    425 

mutilated  their  victims  by  cutting  off  their  hands. 
The  wild  Ngombe  never  practised  the  mutilation  re- 
ferred to.  It  was  reserved  for  civilisation  to  intro- 
duce this  certificate  of  death." 

Now  it  is  a  matter  of  history,  quite  outside  the 
realms  of  argument,  that  punishment  by  bodily 
mutilation  has  been  practised  by  natives  of  Central 
Africa  from  the  earliest  times  of  which  we  have  any 
record.  Here  is  a  sentence  taken  from  a  book  en- 
titled The  First  Christian  Mission  on  the  Congo, 
published  before  the  Congo  State  came  into  exist- 
ence, written  by  Mrs.  H.  Gratten  Guinness: 

From  half  a  million  to  a  million  of  lives  are  annually  sacri- 
ficed in  the  slave  trade,  and  as  many  more  in  all  probability 
in  inter-tribal  wars  and  contests.  Physically  a  land  of  sun- 
shine and  beauty  and  redundant  life,  it  is  spiritually  a  land  of 
darkness,  deformity,  and  death. 

This  evidence,  given  by  the  wife  of  Dr.  Grattan 
Guinness  in  1882,  is  a  strange  foundation  for  Dr. 
Guinness  to  erect  his  1904  statement  upon.  Let  us 
hear  what  other  people  have  to  say  upon  this  subject. 

COMMANDER  LOVETT  CAMERON 
{English) 
In  Ouroua  only  two  punishments  are  known,  mutilation 
and  the  penalty  of  death.  Both  are  much  in  use,  but  espe- 
cially the  former.  For  the  least  offence  the  chief  and  his 
lieutenants  cut  off  a  finger,  a  Hp,  a  portion  of  the  ear  or  of  the 
nose.     For  more  serious  offences,  they  cut  off  the  hands,  etc. 

DR.    WILLIAM    JUNKER 
{German) 

Mazindeh  wished  to  punish  the  man  according  to  A-Zandeh 
law  by  cutting  off  a  finger.     ...     I  saw  a  man  who  had  been 


426         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

punished  by  the  loss  of  his  finger  and  of  another  important 
member.  A  Mahngdeh  told  me  he  knew  about  twenty  men 
who  had  been  similarly  punished. 

SIR   JOHN    KIRK 

(English) 

If  slavery  were  abolished,  all  criminals  would  probably  be 
put  to  death  or  mutilated. 

CARDINAL    LAVIGERIE 

{Belgian) 

King  Wemba,  near  Tanganyika,  finding  the  wooden  drum- 
sticks too  harsh  for  his  ears,  cut  off  the  hands  of  his  slaves 
so  that  they  might  beat  the  drums  with  their  stumps. 

MR.    J.    A.    MALONEY 
{English) 

The  offender  was  lucky  if  he  escaped  with  instant  death, 
for  Msiri  delighted  in  diabolical  refinements  of  cruelty.  Quite 
minor  crimes  were  punished  by  the  lopping  off  of  a  hand  or  the 
docking  of  an  ear.  In  fact  Msiri  practised  mutilation  almost 
as  extensively  as  Kasongo. 

MR.    FREDERICK    STANLEY    ARNOT 

{English) 

Mr.  Giraud  noticed  some  men  whose  noses  or  ears  had  been 
cut  off.  Mkewe's  six  drummers  had  a  thumb  on  each  hand 
hut  no  fingers.  .  .  .  Mr.  Giraud  says  that  everywhere  the 
Bemba  people  practise  these  barbarous  customs.  First  the 
fingers  and  toes  are  cut  off. 

These  quotations  will  surely  prove  that  bodily 
mutilation  is  essentially  an  African  barbarity  that 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers     427 

prevailed  more  or  less  among  all  the  tribes  of  the 
Congo  region,  but  is  now  almost  entirely  suppressed, 
thanks  to  Belgian  civilisation.  The  charge  brought 
by  Dr.  Grattan  Guinness  against  that  civilisation, 
that  it  introduced  and  practises  this  certificate  of 
death,  is  a  libel  so  monstrous  that  it  carries  with  it 
its  own  refutation. 

MR.    GRENFELL 

(English  Missionary) 

The  welcome  that  I  have  received  and  the  faciHties  ac- 
corded me  everywhere  in  the  course  of  my  journey  through 
the  Eastern  Province  have  made  this  journey  very  agreeable. 
This  is  now  the  third  day  that  I  have  received  the  hospitality 
of  this  post,  and  before  leaving  it,  which  I  expect  to  do  to- 
morrow morning,  I  consider  that  I  must  write  and  tell  you 
how  happy  I  have  been  to  have  had  the  opportunity  of  making 
this  most  interesting  journey.  In  the  course  of  my  tour  I 
have  been  much  struck  by  the  order  which  has  been  estab- 
lished, and  by  the  real  progress  accomplished.  When  the 
position  of  the  country  under  the  Arab  domination  is  recalled, 
and  when  the  relatively  brief  number  of  years  since  the  ter- 
mination of  the  military  operations  rendered  necessary  by  the 
revolts  is  taken  into  account,  the  progress  that  has  been  made 
is  nothing  less  than  marvellous.  If  in  spite  of  such  numerous 
difficulties  so  much  has  been  done,  I  am  sure  that  when  the 
railway  towards  Ponthierville  has  been  completed  the  pro- 
gress will  prove  more  rapid  still. — May  ji,  igoj. 

MR.    WILLIAM    FORFEIT 

(English  Baptist  Missionary) 

We  arrived  to-day  at  New  Antwerp  in  order  to  take  our 
farewell  before  leaving  for  England.     1  much  regret  that  we 


428  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

are  not  able  to  see  you.  I  desire  to  thank  you  for  the  kind 
interest  and  consideration  for  the  mission  at  Upoto  which 
you  '  have  always  displayed. 

The  condition  of  the  natives  is  much  improved,  all  the  vil- 
lages of  the  district  can  be  visited  in  absolute  safety,  and  I 
beg  to  congratulate  you  on  the  tranquillity  of  the  district  of 
which  you  are  the  Commissary -General. — March  14,  igoj. 

MESSRS.    ASCENSO    AND    POLIDORI 

{Italian  Physicians) 

The  dwellings  for  soldiers  and  labourers  are  numerous  in 
Kabinda.  They  are  symmetrically  arranged  and  separated 
from  one  another  by  wide  alleys  from  10  to  15  metres  across. 
Each  black  family  has  a  separate  house  sufficiently  large, 
divided  into  two  rooms.  Each  dwelling  is  raised  half  a  metre 
(nearly  20  inches)  above  the  ground,  and  surrounded  by  a 
verandah  one  metre  broad.  The  soil  has  been  well  beaten 
down,  and  the  walls  are  whitened  with  lime.  The  roofing  is 
without  a  ceiling,  with  a  large  opening  admitting  ventilation; 
each  man  sleeps  on  a  bed  raised  one  metre.  The  ground  sur- 
rounding the  post  is  formed  into  separate  small  gardens  in 
which  each  soldier  cultivates  maize,  manioc,  etc. 

All  the  villages  around  Kabinda  are  united  to  the  post  by 
wide  and  long  avenues,  well  kept  up  and  bordered  by  trees 
and  pineapples.  The  natives  greatly  feel  the  effects  of  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  white  man,  and  make  every  effort  to 
rival  him  in  the  maintenance,  cleanliness,  and  prettiness  of 
their  villages.  The  houses  are  placed  on  an  elevation,  and 
are  built  in  the  same  way  as  those  of  the  soldiers  with  truly 
remarkable  care  and  propriety.  Each  house  has  two  or  three 
rooms  containing  from  12  to  15  cubic  metres,  with  good 
verandahs,  and  meets  the  prescribed  hygienic  conditions. 

Large  free  intervals  separate  the  dwellings  from  one  an- 
other, and  in  them  are  the  vegetable  plantations. 

A  detail  worthy  of  being  pointed  out  is  the  great  cleanli- 

^  The  Commissary-General  of  New  Antwerp. 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    429 

ness  of  the  natives  of  this  region.  During  the  course  of  my 
journey  from  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  to  Kabinda  I  remarked 
many  things,  and  I  ascertained  that  at  Kabinda  all  the  natives, 
in  place  of  sleeping  on  the  ground,  have  a  raised  bed,  formed 
by  means  of  flexible  canes  with  coverlets,  stuffs,  and  mosquito 
nets.  There  are  houses  that  contain  magnificent  sarcophagi 
of  truly  artistic  work. 

Everywhere  there  are  small  pieces  of  furniture  coarsely 
sculptured,  but  which  reveal  the  artistic  taste  of  this  people 
and  their  progressive  march  towards  civilisation.  It  must 
also  be  said  that  they  have  a  marked  desire  to  dress  decently. 
In  conclusion,  they  are,  in  my  opinion,  the  first  people  I  met 
in  Africa  who,  without  being  spoilt  by  money,  possess  a  rela- 
tively advanced  degree  of  civilisation,  and  an  hygienic  system 
beyond  dispute. 

The  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  abundance  of  provisions  of 
all  kinds  allow  of  changing  the  food  of  the  soldier  and  the 
native.  Their  food  generally  consists  of  chickens,  goats,  wild 
animals,  manioc,  maize,  vegetables,  and  various  fruits.  They 
feel  the  effects  of  this  good  nourishment.  They  are  strong, 
robust,  support  fatigue  well,  and  consequently  give  little  hold 
to  sickness. 

On  a  hill  close  to  the  post  a  hospital  has  been  constructed 
by  the  natives.  It  contains  three  large  rooms  separated  from 
each  other  and  containing  loo  cubic  metres. — February  21, 
1904. 

MR.    MAGUIRE 

{English  Missionary) 

Though  I  have  travelled  by  boat  and  on  foot  from  Boma 
to  Amadi  and  higher  up  to  Surunga,  calling  at  all  the  State 
stations;  though  I  have  visited  many  establishments,  both 
Catholic  and  non-Catholic,  as  well  as  some  stations  of  inde- 
pendent companies;  though  I  have  passed  nights  and  days 
in  my  tent  in  the  forest  and  in  villages  of  the  natives;  though 
1  have  had  ample  opportunities  of  seeing  much  in  my  jour- 
neys as  to  how  the  natives  are  treated,  I  have  never  seen  or 


430  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

heard  of  any  of  the  atrocities  with  which  the  agents  of  the 
Free  State  are  charged.  On  the  contrary,  one  cannot  but 
admire  the  wonderful  progress  that  has  been  made  in  so  short 
a  time,  the  commendable  way  in  which  the  natives  are  treated, 
the  little  work  that  is  exacted  of  them,  and  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  punctually  paid  for  every  service  rendered  or 
work  done.  The  little  work  which  is  occasionally  exacted  of 
them  by  way  of  tax  in  porterage  or  otherwise  is  as  nothing 
when  compared  with  the  immense  benefits  conferred  upon 
them  by  the  State.  In  fact  the  methods  of  the  Belgian  officers 
drew  a  highly  complimentary  eulogium  from  the  Sirdar  dur- 
ing his  recent  visit  to  the  Enclave  of  Lado — methods  which, 
he  stated,  might  be  followed  with  advantage  by  our  English 
officers:  "Messieurs,"  said  the  Sirdar,  "nous  avons  d'excel- 
lentes  lemons  devant  nos  yeux." — March  ji,  igo4. 

DR.    CHRISTY 

{English  Physician) 

I  went  to  the  Congo  last  September  as  a  member  of  an  ex- 
pedition of  the  Liverpool  School  of  Tropical  Medicine,  which 
was  despatched  especially  to  investigate  sleeping  sickness  in 
the  Congo,  the  same  disease  which  so  recently,  as  the  public 
know,  broke  out  in  such  virulent  epidemic  form  in  Uganda. 
For  a  considerable  time  I  was  in  Leopold ville,  which  is  the 
Bombay  of  the  Congo — that  is,  everybody  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  Congo  goes  through  Leopoldville  in  order  to 
reach  Europe  and  the  outer  world.  Hence  you  can  quite 
understand  that  any  one,  like  myself,  for  instance,  stationed  for 
a  time  in  Leopoldville,  must,  if  he  take  any  trouble  at  all, 
come  across  all  the  officials  from  the  whole  of  the  Congo,  who, 
from  various  causes,  are  bound  at  intervals  to  be  in  or  passing 
through  Leopoldville.  Thus,  whilst  there  I  had  excellent 
opportunities  of  finding  out  exactly  what  happens  in  that 
country,  particularly  as  these  men — that  is,  the  officials  of  the 
Congo — are  extremely  ready  to  talk.  Besides  opportunities 
of  acquiring  information  in  that  way,  I  have  travelled  on  foot 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    431 

in  the  Belgian  Congo  State,  and  personally  observed  the  con- 
dition of  things  which  prevails  there.  I  assure  you  that  if  I 
were  to  tell  you  all  I  know  against  the  Congo  Administration 
it  would  amount  to  a  very  little  indeed  compared  with  what 
I  know  in  its  favour.  The  credulousness  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment in  respect  of  the  Casement  report  is  something  mar- 
vellous. Casement  travelled  up  the  river  in  a  missionary 
steamer,  arm  in  arm  with  missionaries  practically  all  the  time, 
and  obtained  all  his  information  from  the  river  bank  instead 
of  personally  investigating  the  various  stories  of  outrage  and 
mutilation  which  he  received.  It  is  the  most  astonishing 
thing  that  the  British  Government  have  given  the  Casement 
report  so  much  credence. 

The  agitation  now  going  on  with  respect  to  atrocities  in  the 
Congo  is  based  on  things  that  happened  a  long  time  ago. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  in  times  gone  by  atrocities  have  oc- 
curred; but,  thanks  to  the  altered  methods  and  conditions  of 
administration,  such  things  are  not  likely  to  recur.  The  basin 
of  the  Congo,  mainly  the  Belgian  Congo,  is  practically  the 
sole  rubber-producing  area  of  the  world.  This  territor}^  also 
contains  the  lowest  class  of  natives  in  the  whole  of  Africa. 
The  natives  all  over  the  East  Coast — the  Masai,  the  Nandi, 
the  Kaverondo,  the  Bukedi,  the  Baris,  the  Madis,  the  Dinkas, 
the  Shiluks,  and  others — stretching  right  away  up  to  the 
Soudan,  are  all  a  magnificent  class  of  Negro,  a  fighting  people, 
a  manly,  upstanding  people,  who  impressed  me  immensely. 
I  have  been  through  parts  of  all  their  territories,  and  they  are 
indeed  a  magnificent  set  of  people.  Then  you  get  towards 
the  West  Coast — the  basin  of  the  Niger,  where  I  was  for  nearly 
two  years,  and  you  see  a  lower  class  of  natives.  On  the  Benue, 
where  the  present  punitive  expedition  is  operating  in  Niaiger, 
you  have  again  a  distinctly  lower  class  of  natives.  Then,  as 
you  go  farther  South,  and  get  into  the  Congo  watershed,  you 
come  upon  a  still  lower  class  of  natives.  The  natives  over  large 
areas  in  the  Congo  are  cannibals  to  the  present  day.  They  are 
a  very  low  class  of  native  indeed.  That  is  the  territory  which 
the  Belgians  have  so  successfully  opened  up  for  the  rubber 
trade.     In  that  opening-up  process  they  have  had,  as  I  say, 


432  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

to  contend  with  absolutely  the  lowest  class  of  natives  in  Africa 
at  the  present  day.  As  you  travel  through  the  Congo  you 
cannot  help  feeling — at  all  events  any  one  like  myself,  who 
has  been  through  the  British  tropical  colonies — that  the 
amount  of  general  advancement  and  civilisation  in  the  Congo 
Free  State  is  far  ahead  as  compared  with  our  own.  This  is 
doubtless  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Belgians  have  made  the 
natives  work.  The  Belgians  have  gone  on  the  principle,  to 
begin  with,  that  the  native  must  be  a  participating  element 
in  the  development  and  civilisation  of  the  country — that  is, 
that  he  must  work  with  and  for  the  white  man,  and  thereby 
benefit  not  only  the  white  man  but  himself.  I  was  immensely 
impressed  with  the  state  of  government  and  the  advancement 
and  general  opening-up  of  the  Congo,  the  more  so  as  I  can 
compare  it  with  other  districts  under  British  control  in  which 
I  have  been.  We  do  not  attempt  to  make  the  native  work, 
with  the  result  that  we  do  not  get  the  benefit  we  should  from 
our  Protectorates.  Uganda  and  British  East  Africa  are  far 
behind  the  Congo  Free  State.  Not  more  than  a  third  of 
Uganda  is  opened  up  to  administrative  control.  I  once  spent 
ten  months  in  Uganda,  and  visited  every  station  in  it,  walk- 
ing 2300  miles  and  returning  down  the  Nile.  The  Belgians 
have  got  stations  everywhere  in  the  Congo  practically,  and 
most  of  the  natives,  except  in  one  or  two  areas,  are  entirely 
under  control.  The  Uganda  native  is  a  fat,  lazy  chap,  who 
will  do  no  work.  There  is  no  industry  in  Uganda.  The  Bel- 
gians pay  the  Congo  natives  for  their  labour.  They  realise 
that  the  native  is  a  valuable  asset  in  the  country,  and  treat 
him  accordingly.  It  is  surely  obvious  that  it  is  not  to  the 
interest  of  the  Congo  administrators  to  maim  the  native. 

All  the  mutilations  and  cruelties  which  have  been  spoken 
of  took  place  in  the  early  days  of  the  opening-up  process  to 
which  the  country  has  been  subjected  and  before  the  railway 
was  constructed.  The  men  who  have  been  guilty  of  the 
atrocities  have  not  been  Belgians  in  all  cases.  In  many  in- 
stances they  have  been  Italians  who  have  been  appointed  to 
the  smaller  outlying  posts,  the  better  and  higher  positions 
being  kept  for  Belgians.     These  Italians  and  other  foreigners 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers 


-i-v). 


who  have  been  given  the  charge  of  outlying  stations  have  in 
some  cases  perpetrated  cruehies  in  times  gone  by.  These  men 
were  not  accustomed  to  exercise  power,  and  this  led  them  to 
ill-use  the  natives.  That  is  how  the  atrocities  such  as  these 
were  originated.  But  that  has  all  gone  now;  they  are  all 
cleared  out.  I  have  seen  nineteen  such  men,  chiefly  Italians, 
in  prison  at  Boma  on  charges  of  cruelty,  which  proves  that 
the  Belgians  are  doing  their  best  to  put  a  stop  to  the  kind 
of  thing  complained  of.  The  agitation  that  is  now  going 
on  about  atrocities  is  exaggerated  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  amount  of  the  atrocities  that  happened  at  any  time. 
The  Belgians  are  doing  everything  they  can  to  supersede  the 
men  who  have  acted  improperly  in  the  past;  they,  have 
appointed  inspectors  for  different  districts,  and  they  have 
allowed  inspectors  appointed  by  the  Italian  Government  and 
the  Scandinavian  Government  to  go  out  into  the  Congo  for 
the  purpose  of  keeping  an  eye  on  those  of  their  own  nationality 
in  positions  of  responsibility  and  control  in  the  Congo  Free 
State.  Things  in  the  Congo  now  are  very  different  to  what 
they  were  even  two  or  three  years  ago.  The  King  of  the 
Belgians  has  sent  out  Baron  Dhanis — who  had  more  to  do 
with  opening  up  the  Congo  in  the  early  days  than  anybody 
else — to  reorganise  the  whole  military  system  of  the  Congo 
Free  State.  There  are  to  be  two  or  three  large  military 
centres  in  the  Congo,  and  the  soldiers  will  be  much  more 
highly  trained  and  be  more  under  control.  Hitherto  the 
small  posts  have  recruited  men  from  the  surrounding  villages, 
and  given  them  a  bit  of  uniform  and  a  rifle,  and  they  have 
gone  about,  supposed  to  be  doing  their  duty,  instead  of  which 
they  have  probably  been  ill-treating  the  natives.  The  whole 
thing  will  be  changed  now,  however,  for  they  will  have  a 
much  more  highly  organised  army  and  a  much  higher  class  of 
officer.  It  has  been  these  unscrupulous  foreigners — Itahans, 
etc. — who  have  been  guilty  of  the  cruelties  reported.  Another 
proof  of  the  endeavours  to  stop  any  existing  abuses  of  admin- 
istration is  the  fact  that  a  Belgian  officer  who  for  many  years 
held  a  high  post  in  the  Congo  has  recently  been  sent  out  by 
the  King  as  Royal  High  Commissioner,  to  investigate  all 
28 


434  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

questions  of  maladministration  and,  particularly,  payment  of 
State  employees  and  the  natives  for  labour,  with  power  there 
and  then  to  rectify  or  alter  any  existing  rules  which  he  thinks 
might  be  amended  in  any  part  of  the  Congo,  the  territories  of 
concessionary  companies  included.  With  regard  to  the  muti- 
lations in  the  Congo,  described  by  Mr.  Casement,  I  may  tell 
you  that  only  last  year  in  Uganda  I  saw  similar  mutilations, 
which,  it  is  well  known,  were  done  by  the  natives  in  Uganda, 
notably  in  King  Mtesa's  day.  In  walking  through  Toro  and 
Unyoro,  I  have  seen  men  without  noses,  ears,  and,  frequently, 
without  hands. 

With  regard  to  Lord  Cromer's  assertion  that  in  the  Lado 
Enclave  the  natives  have  left  the  banks  of  the  river  and  the 
immediate  regions  of  the  Belgian  posts, — well,  I  have  walked 
along  the  Nile  from  the  Albert  Nyanza  into  the  Soudan,  and 
visited  the  Belgian  stations  on  the  river,  besides  having  seen 
a  good  deal  of  the  natives  on  both  banks.  I  feel  sure  that 
Lord  Cromer  is  wrong  when  he  states  that  the  natives  are 
leaving  the  Belgian  side  and  going  over  to  the  Uganda  side. 
The  natives  certainly  had  nothing  to  complain  of,  and  cer- 
tainly are  not  migrating  across  the  river.  As  for  there  being 
no  villages  round  Lado  Enclave,  the  explanation  is  that  there 
is  for  several  months  of  the  year  absolutely  no  water  and, 
therefore,  necessarily  no  villages.  But  at  many  other  places 
along  the  banks  in  the  Lado  Enclave  there  are  large  villages. 
I  saw  several  thousand  natives  at  Wadelai,  employed  by  the 
Belgians  in  rebuilding  the  old  fort  of  Emin  Pasha,  preparatory 
to  making  a  large  station  there,  and  they  seemed  quite  con- 
tented and  happy,  and  worked  like  a  hive  of  bees.  The  con- 
clusion to  which  I  am  irresistibly  driven  as  a  disinterested 
observer  is  that  the  present  administration  of  the  Congo  is 
not  only  free  from  cruelties,  but  is  of  the  most  complete  and 
efficient  description,  and  counts  for  the  fullest  commercial 
and  industrial  development  of  the  Free  State.  I  am  sure  that 
that  administration  is  doing  its  level  best  in  every  way,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest  officer,  to  make  the  country  prosper- 
ous, and  the  native  happy  and  useful. — June  23,  1904. 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    435 

MR.    GREY 

(English  Civil  Engineer) 

From  the  "Morning  Post"  (London),  January  20,  igoj. 

Since  I  returned  to  England  a  few  weeks  ago  I  have  read 
some  correspondence  in  the  Morning  Post  on  the  subject  of  the 
administration  in  the  Congo  State.  I  am  an  EngUshman, 
and  have  during  the  last  two  years  led  an  expedition  of  the 
Tanganyika  Concessions  (Limited),  organised  in  Rhodesia 
to  explore  and  search  for  minerals  in  the  Katanga  district  of 
the  Congo  State.  During  the  latter  part  of  1901  and  the 
whole  of  1902  sections  of  this  expedition  have  explored  and 
settled  in  the  district  of  Katanga,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
representatives  of  the  Special  Katanga  Committee  have  occu- 
pied and  governed  the  country.  It  is  almost  impossible  for 
one  man  to  have  intimate  knowledge  of  more  than  a  portion 
of  the  territory  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  I  can  only  claim 
to  know  a  small  and  remote  section.  Still,  seeing  that  so 
much  attention  has  been  directed  of  late  to  Belgian  administra- 
tion in  the  Congo,  my  experiences  in  that  country  may  be  of 
interest.  It  is,  perhaps,  necessary  to  explain  that  the  Special 
Katanga  Committee,  the  governing  body  in  Brussels  of  the 
territories  of  Katanga,  is  composed  of  the  representatives  of 
an  amalgamation  between  the  separate  interests  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  Government  and  the  Katanga  Company.  The 
former  originally  owned  two-thirds,  the  latter  one-third,  of 
that  portion  of  the  Congo  State.  This  administration  is 
entirely  Belgian,  and  the  African  staff  is  composed  of  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  committee,  whose  headquarters  are  at  Lukon- 
zolwa,  on  Lake  Mweru,  and  who  occupies  the  position  of 
administrator,  and  of  numerous  officials,  civil  and  military,  in 
charge  of  the  various  sections  of  the  district  and  departments 
of  the  administration.  The  country  is  garrisoned  by  a  large 
force  of  native  troops,  with  European  officers.  My  duties 
have  confined  me  to  the  section  of  the  district  called  the  Upper 
Luapula  Section,  which  borders  on  the  south  and  east  with 
Northern  Rhodesia.     I  have  visited  the  chief  of  that  section, 


nI 


436  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Mr.  Vervloet,  at  his  headquarters  at  Lukafu,  and  an  officer  of 
the  Katanga  force  with  a  few  soldiers  has  been  attached  to 
my  expedition. 

I  have,  therefore,  had  considerable  opportunity  on  the  spot 
of  learning  the  instructions  which  the  Special  Committee  give 
their  officials,  and  how  those  instructions  are  carried  out.  I 
myself  and  many  members  of  my  expedition  have  become 
fairly  intimate  with  the  native  inhabitants  of  large  portions 
of  this  district,  and  have  from  time  to  time  employed  as 
carriers  and  miners  sevei^l  hundred  labourers.  That  the 
natives  of  this  country  had  never  suffered  ill-treatment  from 
white  men  was  evident  to  me  from  the  time  I  entered  the 
countr}^  They  showed  no  hesitation  in  working  for  my  ex- 
pedition and  in  bringing  quantities  of  food  to  sell,  and  always 
seemed  quite  confident  that  fair  payment  would  be  given,  both 
for  labour  and  food.  I  have  lived  for  many  years  in  parts  of 
Africa  in  which  the  native  inhabitants  were  for  the  first  time 
coming  under  the  influence  of  European  government,  and 
where  conditions  rendered  the  aid  of  such  government  by 
native  troops  necessary.  It  is  almost  impossible  constantly 
to  restrain  the  tendency  to  oppress  and  ill-treat  his  less 
powerful  countrymen  which  is  inherent  in  the  native  soldier, 
and  I  do  not  believe  that  it  ever  happens  that  the  advent  of 
that  form  of  government  is  unaccompanied  by  acts  of  injustice 
and  oppression.  Generally  there  is  a  constant  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  European  officer  to  prevent  such  acts  and  punish 
offenders.  My  experience  is  that  this  is  especially  the  case 
in  the  district  of  Katanga.  The  regulations  of  the  Special 
Committee  provide  that  no  armed  parties  of  soldiers  should 
travel  or  patrol  without  a  European  officer.  Native  soldiers 
are  not  allowed  to  enter  villages  alone,  and  weekly  markets 
are  held  at  which  a  European  official  buys  food  for  his  soldiers 
from  the  neighbouring  villages,  so  endeavouring  to  do  away 
as  far  as  possible  with  direct  dealing  between  the  soldier  and 
the  people.  My  experience  of  the  last  two  years  has  con- 
vinced me  that  in  the  district  of  Katanga  at  any  rate  the 
Belgian  officials  endeavour  to  treat  the  Central  African  native 
with  justice  and  leniency,  and  in  as  great  a  degree  as  officials 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    437 

of  any  other  nation  look  on  him  as  a  human  being,  with  a 
perfect  right  to  sell  his  labour  and  his  food  on  terms  satisfac- 
tory to  himself.  When  I  first  entered  the  Congo,  at  the  time 
that  the  officials  of  the  Special  Committee  were  establishing 
their  government,  and  before  I  had  come  into  personal  con- 
tact with  them,  I  found  some  armed  natives  who  posed  as 
soldiers  of  the  Belgian  Government,  and  who  lived  more  or 
less  the  life  of  robbers,  raiding  and  stealing  wherever  they 
went.  The  natives  believed  that  these  men  were  the  au- 
thorised police  of  the  European  Administration,  whose  white 
officials  they  had  not  yet  seen,  and  members  of  my  expedition 
reported  to  me  on  the  shocking  behaviour  of  the  Belgian 
Askari.  I  later  learnt  the  complete  mistake  we  had  made  in 
believing  these  men  to  be  Government  employees.  In  a  short 
time  they  completely  disappeared,  caught  or  driven  out  by 
the  agents  of  the  committee.  The  Ba-Luba  and  Wasanga, 
the  tribes  we  have  been  working  among,  are,  we  find,  a  peace- 
able, industrious  race,  with  practically  no  warlike  propensity, 
an  easy  prey  to  any  organised  hostile  force.  I  am  led  to  be- 
lieve that  their  numbers  have  decreased  during  the  last  fifty 
years  owing  to  a  continuous  traffic  in  slaves  with  the  Arabs 
of  the  East  and  Mambunda  of  the  West.  To-day  the  slave 
trade  has  ceased  in  this  particular  district,  the  traders  being 
afraid  to  come  anywhere  near  the  Belgian  posts.  To  such  an 
extent  have  conditions  changed  with  the  advent  of  Belgian 
administration  that  many  small  chiefs  are  now  recovering  in- 
dividuals raided  from  them  by  their  stronger  neighbours  and 
not  already  sold  to  the  traders  when  European  control  reached 
the  country. 

In  all  discussions  and  criticism  of  the  mistakes  made  by 
European  administration  in  Central  Africa  there  is  one  condi- 
tion which  seems  to  me  to  be  never  taken  into  account.  That 
is  the  necessity  of  employing  officials  who  have  to  spend  a 
long  time  learning  how  to  do  efficiently  the  work  that  they 
have  to  carry  on  from  the  day  they  arrive  at  their  posts.  There 
is  no  school  in  which  to  learn  Central  African  Civil  Service 
except  Central  Africa,  and  it  is  impossible  in  Africa  to  obtain 
a  sufficient  number  of  qualified  officials.     Not  many  go  to 


438         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Central  Africa  with  the  idea  of  making  their  permanent  homes 
there.  It  has  been  my  own  good  fortune  to  settle  in  a  healthy 
part  of  Central  Africa,  but  from  my  knowledge  of  the  Conti- 
nent as  a  whole,  I  think  it  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  state  that 
two-thirds  of  the  officials  who  leave  Europe  are,  within  five 
3'ears  of  their  arrival,  either  killed  by  the  climate,  invalided 
home,  or  have  left  the  country  at  the  termination  of  an  agree- 
ment. All  these  have  to  be  constantly  replaced  by  inex- 
perienced men,  with  their  job  to  learn.  What  wonder  then 
that  grievous  mistakes  are  sometimes  made  by  some  of  these 
untried  men,  necessarily  placed  in  responsible  positions?  In 
writing  this  letter  to  you,  I  state  onl}^  my  own  experience  and 
opinion  of  the  spirit  and  effect  of  Belgian  administration  in 
the  district  of  Katanga ;  but  it  seems  natural  to  me  to  suppose 
that  the  same  spirit  extends  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
Congo  territory ;  and  it  seems  almost  the  duty,  at  the  present 
time,  of  any  Englishman  who  has  had  opportunity  to  judge  of 
the  general  methods  of  Belgian  administration  to  give  pub- 
licity to  his  knowledge. — Yours,  etc., 

G.  Grey. 

In  presence  of  testimony  such  as  this,  it  is  not 
matter  for  surprise  that  His  Eminence,  Cardinal 
Cardinal  Gibbons,  should  have  characterised  as  in- 
Gibbons  Opportune  the  consideration  by  the  recent 
Speaks  out.  pg^^^g  Congress  at  Boston  of  the  oft -refuted 
accusations  brought  against  the  Congo  Free  State. 
Where  not  absolutely  false  in  every  particular  (as 
the  majority  of  these  slanderous  stories  most  cer- 
tainly are),  they  are  grossly  exaggerated,  distorted 
out  of  all  resemblance  to  the  events  they  are  based 
upon,  and  mendaciously  attributed  to  a  Government 
that  has  consistently  and  unswervingly  repressed 
wrongdoing,  of  whatever  kind,  or  by  whomsoever 
done,  and  brought  the  light  of  civilisation  to  a  vast 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    439 

barbarian  population  more  thoroughly  and  in  less 
time  than  was  ever  done  before. 

The  opinion  of  Cardinal  Gibbons  upon  this  point 
well  appears  in  a  letter  addressed  by  His  Eminence 
to  the  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Congo  Reform 
Association,  of  which  the  following  is  the  full  text. 

HIS    EMINENCE,    CARDINAL  GIBBONS 

(American) 

Baltimore,  Oct.  21,  1904. 
The  Honorary  Secretary, 

Congo  Reform  Association. 

Sir, — I  avail  myself  of  the  first  opportunity  which  has  pre- 
sented itself  to  acknowledge  your  letter  of  the  i8th  instant. 
In  that  letter  you  call  my  attention  to  certain  resolutions 
adopted  by  the  Peace  Congress  at  Boston.  I  fail  to  see  in 
these  resolutions  any  vote  of  censure  upon  the  Congo  Free 
State.  They  express  rather  a  desire  for  information  in  regard 
to  the  international  status  of  that  State. 

It  appears  that  those  who  voted  for  the  resolutions  were  in 
need  of  enlightenment  on  the  subject,  but  this  information 
lies  near  at  hand.  There  is  no  need  to  appeal  to  any  tribunal. 
Diplomatic  history,  diplomatic  correspondence  concerning  the 
Independent  State  of  the  Congo,  and  the  acts  and  the  proto- 
cols of  the  Conference  of  Berlin,  as  well  as  of  the  Conference 
of  Brussels,  all  prove  conclusively  that  the  Congo  Free  State 
is  an  independent  sovereign  State,  and  that  the  powers  have 
no  right  of  guardianship  or  intervention. 

Your  letter  also  refers  to  certain  documents,  such  as  the 
British  Parliamentary  White  Book,  Africa,  No.  7  (1904), 
which,  however,  has  not  escaped  my  attention.  Permit  me 
to  say  that  this  book,  instead  of  proving  your  contention, 
proves  the  exact  contrary,  and  shows  that  both  the  adminis- 
tration and  the  courts  of  the  Congo  are  using  their  endeavours 
to  correct  such  evils  as  may  exist — for  no  human  government 
is  perfect. 


440  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  interpellation  in  the  Belgian  Chamber  of  Representa- 
tives, to  which  you  refer,  seems  to  have  been  simply  a  fruit- 
less attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Socialist  leader  to  annoy  the 
Grovemment.  The  very  fact  that  the  Chamber  considered 
Mr.  Vandervelde's  charges  against  the  Congo,  and  refused  to 
sympathise  with  him  in  his  views,  is  in  itself  a  significant 
indication  of  the  baselessness  of  his  accusations. 

In  your  letter  you  are  also  pleased  to  say  that  in  speaking 
in  defence  of  the  Congo  Government  I  have  spoken  "unwit- 
tingly," and  to  imply  that  I  have  not  considered  the  facts 
nor  weighed  the  evidence.  I  can  assure  you  that  I  have  not 
spoken  without  due  consideration.  As  to  the  evidence,  it  is 
overwhelmingly  against  your  contention. 

It  is  only  some  score  of  discontented  men,  depending  largely 
on  the  untrustworthy  hearsay  evidence  of  natives,  who  have 
raised  an  outcry  against  the  Congo  Administration,  out  of  a 
great  band  of  500  or  600  missionaries,  both  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  who  are  working  on  the  Congo,  and  who  give 
thanks  to  the  Congo  Administration  for  its  support  to  the 
missions,  and  for  its  successful  efforts  to  introduce  Christian- 
ity and  civilisation  into  Central  Africa. 

Overwhelming  evidence  in  favour  of  the  Congo  Government 
has  been  given  recently  by  missionaries  and  by  travellers,  and 
it  is  not  only  Catholic  missionaries,  like  Monsignor  Van  Ronsle 
and  Father  Van  Hencxthoven,  who  have  spoken  in  praise  of 
the  State,  but  also  the  most  distinguished  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries, such  as  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bentley  and  Dr.  Grenfell. 

As  it  is  not  likely  that  you  will  convert  me,  and  as  I  see  no 
probability  of  convincing  you,  I,  for  my  part,  think  it  best  to 
consider  the  correspondence  closed. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 
(Signed)     James,  Cardinal  Gibbons. 

Viscount  Mountmorres 

In  the  summer  of  1904,  an  Irish  peer,  Lord  Mount- 
morres,  began  a  journey  through  the  Congo  Free 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers  441 

State,  whence  his  lordship  is  sending  an  admirable 
series  of  letters,  descriptive  of  his  experiences  and 
impressions,  to  the  London  Globe.  The  dismal 
scenes  of  torture,  desolation,  and  death,  in  which 
the  missionary-agents  of  the  Liverpool  merchants 
assure  us  that  unhappy  country  abounds,  appear  in 
some  way  to  have  escaped  the  observation  of  this 
traveller.  "The  further  one  goes  into  the  interior 
the  more  civilised  one  finds  it,  the  better  organised, 
and  the  more  developed,"  says  Lord  Mountmorres 
at  the  opening  of  his  second  letter : 

I  was  utterly  unprepared  [he  continues]  for  what  I  found 
at  Irebu  and  at  Coquilhatville,  buried  away  there  on  the 
equator  in  the  very  heart  of  the  great  forest.  For  what  are 
these  stations?  Large  haphazard  jumbles  of  native  dwell- 
ings and  white  men's  bungalows  in  an  arid  clearing,  with  ill- 
kempt  roadways,  such  as  one  would  find  in  the  Western 
States  ?  No ;  here  we  have  great  open  towns  of  really  artistic 
brick  houses,  with  palm-thatched  roofs  and  wide  verandahs, 
each  standing  in  its  own  little  garden,  bright  with  roses  and 
hibiscus,  Spanish  iris  and  flamboyants,  and  set  well  back 
along  straight,  wide  avenues  shaded  by  bamboos,  mangoes, 
papayes,  acacias,  bread-fruit  trees,  or  one  of  a  dozen  other 
leafy  and  ornamental  equatorial  trees.  In  spacious  grounds 
will  be  found  the  residence  of  the  local  governor,  chef-de- 
poste,  or  commandant,  as  the  case  may  be,  with  its  twenty  to 
thirty-foot  verandah  and  its  flagstaff  in  front,  placed  usually 
so  as  to  command  the  full  view  of  the  river  front.  Round 
one  or  more  spacious  squares  at  the  intersections  of  the  prin- 
cipal avenues  will  be  the  various  public  offices — the  Director- 
ate of  Transports,  the  Post  Office,  the  Magasins  de  I'Etat, 
the  headquarters  of  the  Force  Pubhque,  the  Office  of  Agri- 
culture, and  the  rest.  At  Bikoro  there  are  2200  acres  over- 
looking the  lovely  Lac  Tumba,  sometimes  miscalled  Man 
Tumba  or  M'Tumba,  a  corruption  of  Mai  Na  Tumba,  water 


442  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

(or  lake)  of  war.  Round  Coquilhatville  there  are  little  short 
of  4500  acres  of  these  plantations,  and  round  Irebu  and 
Imesse  something  like  1200  acres  in  each  case.  Then  near 
to  each  station  will  be  the  extensive  market  gardens,  where 
every  manner  of  vegetable,  both  European  and  tropical,  is 
raised  in  profusion,  and  also  the  large,  well-kept  farm  or 
farms,  which  supply  the  principal  officials  with  beef  and 
mutton,  goat  and  pork,  poultry  and  ducks,  and  in  which  a 
ceaseless  series  of  experiments  in  breeding  and  raising  stock 
adapted  to  the  climate  is  carried  on. 

And  this  has  been  achieved  not  in  one  isolated  spot  near 
the  coast,  where  material  and  transport  were  ready  to  hand, 
but  at  every  "white  post"  up  here  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
black  continent,  cut  off  until  a  few  years  ago  from  the  capital 
and  the  seaboard  by  that  deadly,  costly  barrier — the  white 
man's  cemetery  of  the  Cataract  caravan  road.  How  has  it 
been  done?  Let  us  take  Irebu  as  a  typical  case.  Seven 
years  ago  a  young  Belgian  lieutenant,  Jeuniaux  by  name,  was 
sent  out  to  take  charge  of  the  military  training  camp  at  the 
junction  of  the  Ubanghi,  the  Congo,  and  the  Tumba  Canal,  on 
the  site  of  a  former  larger  and  flourishing  native  village.  He 
came,  and  he  found  an  unhealthy  and  pestilential  swamp 
covered  with  the  ruins  and  the  filth  of  the  then  almost  de- 
serted village  of  Irebu.  Among  these  unpleasant  surround- 
ings was  a  large  group  of  ill-kempt  and  badly  constructed 
mud  and  thatch  huts — the  training  camp ;  and  here  he  was 
doomed  to  pass  at  least  three  years.  But  he  was  young  and 
energetic,  and  had  passed  unscathed  along  the  latter  half  of 
the  caravan  road  in  the  cataract  district,  for  the  railway  was 
then  but  half  completed.  He  had  seen  brick  houses  in  other 
stations,  and  clean,  well-kept,  well-arranged  little  townships. 
He  would  have  the  same.  But  his  first  difficulty  was  that 
this  was  a  training  camp,  whither  the  raw,  untutored  savage 
was  drafted  in  his  naked  ignorance  to  undergo  six  months' 
tuition  only;  and,  so  soon  as  he  had  acquired  a  sufficient 
training  to  make  him  of  use  to  the  white  man,  he  was  hurried 
on  elsewhere  and  a  new  batch  of  raw  material  took  his  place. 
Jeuniaux  had  but  a  hazy  notion  of  architecture,  but,  unaided, 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers  443 

he  planned  and  designed  his  barracks,  and  acted  as  his  own 
foreman,  devising  quaint  methods  to  construct  weather-proof 
walls  and  roofs  from  the  materials  at  hand,  and  instructing 
his  workers,  man  by  man,  in  these  methods,  and  that  without 
even  the  medium  of  a  common  language. 

At  last  his  barracks  were  built,  and  the  old  huts  destroyed; 
coffee,  cocoa,  maize,  sweet  potatoes,  and  bananas  grew  in 
well-ordered  plantations,  between  parallel,  palm-lined  avenues, 
where  formerly  had  been  a  wilderness  of  insanitary  ruins. 
Then  came  the  great  feat  of  all — brick  houses  for  the  whites 
and  for  the  Departmental  offices.  Bricks,  bricks.  He  knew 
that  bricks  were  made  somehow  from  some  sort  of  clay,  and 
he  had  a  hazy  notion  that  straw  was  essential  to  their  com- 
position. So  he  started  on  a  series  of  experiments.  In  the 
intervals  of  his  work — with  two  sub-lieutenants  to  help  him, 
he  was  responsible  for  training,  feeding,  and  controlling  from 
looo  to  1500  soldiers,  with  their  wives  and  families,  for  main- 
taining order  in  his  district,  and  developing  its  commercial 
resources,  and  for  ruling  the  natives  in  it;  how  well  he  had 
done  this  work  I  will  show  in  a  moment — but,  in  the  inter- 
vals, he  went  on  clay-hunting  expeditions,  and  then  sat  up 
at  night  experimenting  on  what  he  had  found,  and  at  last  he 
produced  what  he  recognised  as  the  real  red  brick — the 
philosopher's  stone  of  his  research.  And  so  the  first  brick 
house  in  Irebu  was  built  in  one  year  from  when  Jeuniaux 
first  came.  And  he  built  other  houses  for  his  lieutenants  and 
white  non-coms.,  and  a  residency  for  himself,  and  a  guest 
house  large  and  comfortable,  and  post-office,  state  stores, 
guard-house,  pharmacy,  armoury,  and  houses  for  all  the 
other  whites.  One  by  one  they  were  built,  and  Jeuniaux, 
now  Commandant  Jeuniaux,  and  his  ever-changing  pupils 
built  them  all,  until  he  had  realised  his  ambition,  and  had 
constructed  a  model  station,  with  its  lovely  avenues,  its 
riverside  promenade,  its  fine  landing-stage,  its  parade  ground, 
where  1200  men  may,  without  crowding,  manoeuvre  in  com- 
panies at  once,  and  its  pretty  public  gardens.  And  when  his 
first  term  of  three  years  was  over  he  left,  with  the  sense  of 
work  accomplished,  for   his  six  months'   holiday.     All  the 


444         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

time  in  Europe  he  pictured  the  growth  of  his  plantations  and 
his  palms,  and  told  his  friends  he  should  be  glad  to  get  back 
"home"  to  Irebu,  the  town  he  built  with  his  own  hands. 
And  the  night  before  he  reached  it  he  could  not  sleep  for 
excitement;  and  all  day  he  strained  his  eyes  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  it,  and  at  last  it  came  in  sight.  But  not  the  Irebu 
he  knew.  The  plantations  had  reverted  into  jungle,  the 
avenues  had  disappeared,  lost  in  the  qtiick,  rank  growth;  the 
pleasure  gardens  were  a  wilderness;  the  finest  of  the  palms 
had  been  cut  down;  and  he  went  through  the  coarse,  wild 
vegetation  that  clogged  the  entrance  to  his  house,  and  into 
the  damp  hall- way  that  was  become  the  home  of  bats,  and  of 
rats,  and  of  lizards,  and  he  sat  down  there,  and  he  wept.  For 
so,  in  six  short  months,  had  an  idle  officer  left  in  charge 
during  his  absence  undone  the  labour  of  three  years. 

But  he  is  not  a  man  to  be  easily  daunted.  To-day  Irebu 
is  as  spick  and  span  and  as  beautiful  as  he  first  conceived  it. 
The  benefit  that  accrues  to  the  natives  as  well  as  to  the  whites 
from  so  well-built  and  arranged  a  station  is  shown  by  the 
change  that  has  occurred  in  the  health  of  Irebu.  One  of 
Jeuniaux's  first  cares  was  to  make  the  place  sanitary.  Now, 
since  he  built  the  station,  i.  e.,  in  the  five  years  since  summer, 
1899,  there  have  been  only  two  deaths  among  the  whites, — 
although  their  number  has  been  increased, — and  of  these  one 
was  a  case  of  sunstroke,  the  other  one  probably  of  deliberate 
intent  to  die  by  disobeying  orders  during  an  illness  on  receipt 
of  bad  news.  Since  1901  there  has  not  been  one  death  among 
Europeans.  The  mortality  rate  among  the  soldiers  has  de- 
creased to  14  per  1000  average,  and  for  the  current  year  to 
12  per  1000,  or  a  fraction  under.  And  this  despite  the  fact 
that  the  sudden  change  in  their  mode  of  life  when  they  enter 
military  service  must  be  a  severe  strain  on  the  recruits,  and 
also  that  Irebu,  lying  at  the  junction  of  waterways,  is  con- 
stantly having  dumped  down  in  it  cases  of  infectious  diseases, 
which  are  discovered  on  the  river  steamers,  and  which  are 
put  ashore  at  the  nearest  station. 

Now,  I  mention  all  this  about  the  building  of  Irebu,  not 
simply  to    glorify  Commandant  Jeuniaux,  but   because  the 


Testimony  of  Travellers  and  Thinkers    445 

work  that  has  been  done  there,  the  difficulties  he  has  had  to 
contend  with  and  has  overcome,  the  result  that  has  been 
achieved,  are  identical  with  what  every  commandant  has  met 
with  in  each  of  the  beautiful  stations  that  you  will  find  in 
the  Middle  Congo.  Each  of  these  represents  the  personal 
exertion  of  one  individual,  and  their  existence  is  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  ability  and  devotion  with  which  the  State 
is  served  by  its  servants. 

Mrs.  M.  French  Sheldon 

Mrs.  French  Sheldon,  the  traveller  and  author, 
returned  to  Europe  in  December,  1904,  after  a  tour 
through  the  Congo  Free  State. 

I  have  witnessed  [she  says]  more  atrocities  in  London 
streets  than  I  have  seen  in  the  Congo,  which  remark  applies 
to  the  rubber  country  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  State.  I 
travelled  through  every  part  of  the  country,  and  am  con- 
vinced that  the  allegations  of  maladministration  are  ground- 
less. Wherever  I  went  I  found  the  natives  treated  with 
kindness  and  consideration,  while  the  improvements  in  the 
condition  of  the  land  and  its  inhabitants  are  almost  incredible. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  EUROPE  AND  THE  UNITED 
STATES 

THE  Congolese  kaleidoscope  has  revolved  so 
swiftly  since  1896,  that  it  is  with  difficulty 
the  European  attitude  towards  the  Congo 
Free  State  notoriety  can  be  completely  indicated. 
It  would  be  unfair  to  the  English  people — that  great, 
sane  mass  of  them  which  sits  imperturbably  serene 
and  looks  on — to  say  that  the  British  attitude 
towards  the  Congo  is  of  that  bitter  hostility  which 
a  few  hysterical  Liverpool  merchants  and  writers 
wish  the  outside  world  to  believe.  Indeed,  it  would 
appear  to  be  part  of  their  plan  to  make  sufficient 
noise  to  induce  the  Germans,  French,  and  Ameri- 
cans to  attribute  the  agitation  to  the  entire  British 
public.  The  fact  is  that  the  severest  condemnation 
of  the  anti-Congo  campaign  is  being  uttered  by 
Britons  against  the  clique  which  is  striving  to  en- 
tangle British  ministers  in  an  affair  that  may  some 
day  redound  to  England's  humiliation.  The  shifts 
have  been  many  to  which  certain  Liverpool  mer- 
chants and  their  chief  crier  have  been  put  to  main- 
tain a  hubbub  which  they  hope  will,  by  accident  or 
the  logic  of  events,  create  an  opening  for  their 
ulterior  commercial  plans. 

446 


Native  Planter's  House,  near  Stanley  Falls. 


■Xi*  • 


Prison,  with  Carpenter's  Shop,  at  New  Antwerp  (Bangala). 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     447 

In  1897,  the  services  of  Sir  Charles  Dilke  were  first 
enhsted  against  the  Congo  State.  In  that  year  it 
was  evident  to  those  who  had  previously  erred  in 
their  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  Congo  as  a  com- 
mercial and  political  asset,  that  the  Free  State 
would  more  than  fulfil  the  early  expectations  of 
Leopold  11.  and  Henry  M.  Stanle}^  The  awakening 
to  this  fact  is  the  genesis  of  the  envy  which  enlivens 
Congolese  history  to-day.  So  long  as  Stanley  sat 
in  Parliament  and  avowed  his  confidence  in  the  Bel- 
gians who  are  erecting  a  State  upon  the  ruins  of  the 
slave  trade,  and  so  long  as  he  reiterated  to  his 
colleagues  on  the  benches  there  the  truth  of  the 
practical  difficulties  in  Central  Africa,  the  campaign 
against  the  Congo  State  in  Efngland  made  little 
serious  progress.  When  Stanley  died,  when  his 
voice  in  defence  of  the  great  work  which  he  had 
shared  with  the  King  of  the  Belgians  could  no 
longer  expose  the  fallacies  and  the  true  motive  of  the 
despoiler,  the  Congophobe  epidemic  spread  to  Amer- 
ica and  became  more  virulent  than  ever. 

Early  in  1903,  a  number  of  British  merchants  ex- 
pressed their  grievance  against  the  French  Congo 
in  a  volume  by  the  author  ^  whose  active  hostility 
against  the  Belgian  Congo  has  given  currency  to 
many  false  statements  and  unjust  beliefs.  In  the 
preface  to  the  story  of  the  British  Case  in  the  French 
Congo,  this  writer  states  that: 

The  British  merchants  in  the  French  Congo  have  been  sacri- 
ficed to  save  the  face  of  certain  French  poHticians — to  stave 
off  for  a  while  the  inevitable  exposure  of  a  deplorable  error 

■  E.  D.  Morel. 


448  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

of  colonial  policy.  In  the  French  Congo,  rather  than  admit 
the  overwhelming  body  of  proof  pointing  to  the  Concessions 
Decree  of  1899  being  framed  in  ignorance,  unworkable  in 
practice,  monstrously  unjust  in  its  effects  upon  the  merchant 
and  native  alike,  successive  Colonial  Ministers  have  endeav- 
oured to  square  the  circle,  and,  of  course,  they  have  lament- 
ably failed.  An  existing  trade  has  been  destroyed,  the  colony 
is  practically  bankrupt,  the  revenue  is  steadily  falling,  the 
natives  are  either  in  open  rebellion  or  thoroughly  disaffected, 
the  military  expenditure  has  largely  increased,  and  the  Con- 
cessionaires will  only  last  as  long  as  they  are  allowed  to 
maintain  themselves  by  the  ingenious  system  of  fining  the 
British  firms — that  is  to  say,  until  a  way  is  graciously  found 
for  the  latter  to  sell  their  factory  depots  and  their  merchan- 
dise (which,  of  course,  is  deteriorating  steadily) ;  or  until, 
despairing  finally  of  effectual  home  support,  our  merchants 
themselves  destroy  or  embark  all  that  remains  of  their  actual 
possessions,  and  leave  the  country  in  a  body. 

The  purely  commercial  considerations  upon  which 
this  complaint  against  the  French  Congo  is  founded 
are  quite  apparent  and  need  not  form  the  subject  of 
argument.  It  may  be  enlightening,  however,  to  note 
the  fact  that  since  this  impassioned  book  was  hurled 
at  the  heads  of  Frenchmen  across  the  English  Chan- 
nel, the  Anglo-French  rapprochement  has  been  ef- 
fected, and  the  entente  cordiale  of  King  Edward's 
visit  to  Paris  has  likewise  intervened  to  divert  the 
merchant  wrath  from  the  French  Congo  to  the 
Congo  Free  State.  French  Deputies  have  visited 
London  and  enjoyed  that  bounteous  hospitality 
which  none  can  gainsay  of  a  British  household; 
members  of  Parliament  have  gone  to  Paris  and 
dignified  the  gaiety  of  the  quai  d'Orsai.  Not  a  ves- 
tige of  the   British  complaint  against  the  French 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     449 

Congo  now  freights  the  air.  Instead,  there  prevails 
a  friendly  persiflage  between  those  two  great  powers. 

Inasmuch  as  the  concessionaire  system  adopted 
in  the  French  Congo  gave  new  impetus  to  the 
British  campaign  against  the  Belgian  Congo,  it  may 
be  profitable  to  examine  what  precipitated  matters. 

The  occasion  was  the  organisation  in  the  French 
Congo  of  the  system  known  as  the  regime  des  con- 
cessions. A  decree  of  the  President  of  the  French 
Republic,  dated  March  28,  1899,  divided  the  whole 
territory  of  the  French  Congo  Colony  between  about 
forty  concessionaire  companies,  which  were  to  de- 
velop it  under  various  conditions  imposed  upon  them. 
The  companies  were  granted  all  the  rights  of  owner- 
ship over  the  ceded  areas. 

In  1 90 1,  several  of  these  companies  prohibited  cer- 
tain English  merchants,  who  had  been  established 
in  the  country  upwards  of  twenty-five  years,  from 
buying  rubber  direct  from  the  natives,  alleging  that 
all  natural  produce  belonged  to  the  owner  of  the 
soil.  Goods  were  even  seized  on  their  way  to  the 
English  factories. 

The  injured  traders  complained  that  such  action 
was  not  in  accordance  with  the  General  Act  of  Ber- 
lin, the  terms  of  which  insure  freedom  of  trade  in  the 
Congo  Basin.  They  appealed  to  the  French  Congo 
courts,  whose  decision  was  in  favour  of  the  com- 
panies. Many  judgments  were  pronounced,  all  of 
which  held  that  the  agricultural  exploitation  of  the 
forests  was  an  exclusive  right  of  the  concessionaire 
companies,  and  did  not  run  counter  to  the  provisions 
of  the  Berlin  Act. 


450  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

These  judgments  were  rendered  by  the  Council  of 
Appeal  at  Libreville,  on  November  27,  1901,  the 
petitioners  being  John  Holt  &  Company  (Liverpool) 
and  the  defendants  the  Compagnie  Frangaise  du 
Congo  Occidental. 

In  spite  of  these  judgments,  British  commercial 
circles  persisted  in  the  view  that  the  concessions 
system  was  a  violation  of  the  free -trade  clause  of  the 
Berlin  Act.  The  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  Liver- 
pool took  the  lead  in  a  movement  based  upon  this 
view.  On  September  30,  1901,  a  memorial  was  pre- 
sented to  the  British  Foreign  Office  protesting 
against  the  concessionaire  regime  in  the  French 
Congo,  petitioning  for  an  inquiry  into  its  legality 
under  the  Berlin  and  Brussels  Acts,  and  urging  the 
British  Government  to  insist  on  these  Acts  being 
respected  by  the  French. 

A  similar  memorial  was  presented  on  October  22, 
1 90 1,  by  the  Manchester  and  Birmingham  Chambers 
of  Commerce,  and  in  December  of  the  same  year 
delegates  from  ten  British  Chambers  of  Commerce 
were  received  in  audience  by  Lord  Lansdowne,  who, 
according  to  the  Paris  Temps,  acknowledged  that 
their  grievances  were  well  founded  and  promised 
to  do  all  in  his  power  for  those  interested  in  the 
question. 

At  that  time  West  Africa,  the  journal  of  the 
Liverpool  Chamber  of  Commerce,  renewed  its  cam- 
paign against  the  Congo  Free  State,  accusing  its 
administrators  of  being  the  principal  sinners,  inas- 
much as  the  Free  State's  land  system  had  been 
copied  in  the  French  Congo  and  German  East  Africa. 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     45 1 

In  its  issue  of  October  26,  1901,  West  Africa  called 
the  Congo  State  fans  et  origo  mali,  and  declared  that 
it  was  the  Belgian  clique  which  had  drawn  France 
into  the  economic  errors  of  its  present  system. 

This  campaign  quickly  assumed  large  proportions. 
West  Africa  continued  to  wage  war  against  the 
French  system  of  concessions  and  against  the  Congo 
Free  State,  the  latter  being  bitterly  denounced  as 
the  evil  genius  who  conceived  a  land  system  which 
supported  the  State  without  the  assistance  of  large 
revenue  from  the  liquor  trade  or  the  presence  of 
intriguing  foreign  merchants. 

In  the  hope  of  putting  an  end  to  the  Anglo-French 
difficulties  in  the  Congo  without  raising  questions  of 
principle,  the  Temps  of  December  29,  1901,  sug- 
gested that  an  amicable  settlement  be  arranged  be- 
tween the  French  Government  and  the  British 
traders  affected  by  the  concessionaire  system  in  its 
West  African  Colony.  By  such  arrangement,  these 
traders  would  have  received  compensation  for  their 
loss.  But,  in  a  letter  dated  January  7,  1902,  the 
Temps'  special  correspondent  in  Liverpool  warned 
the  French  that  such  an  expedient  would  not  put  a 
stop  to  the  agitation,  and  endeavoured  to  show  in 
its  true  light  the  campaign  which  was  going  on  in 
England 

Meantime  the  Aborigines'  Protection  Society  pur- 
sued its  old  course  of  agitating  something,  anything, 
so  long  as  its  secretary,  freedom  of  speech,  and  the 
attention  of  a  Foreign  Office  combined  to  afford  op- 
portunity. The  purely  commercial  grievances  of 
British  traders  who  had  been  made  to  conform  to 


452  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Congolese  law  required  new  elements  of  support. 
What  could  be  of  greater  assistance  to  their  com- 
mercial schemes  than  the  tearful  work  of  the  Abor- 
igines' Protection  Society  of  England,  the  new  Congo 
Reform  Association  of  Liverpool,  and  their  peculiar 
methods  of  playing  upon  the  credulity,  sentimental- 
ity, and  the  sympathies  of  susceptible  and  deluded 
persons  whose  leisure  sought  occupation  and  new 
interests?  While  the  business  brigade  of  the  anti- 
Congo  campaign  sought  to  enlist  the  aid  of  the 
German  Chambers  of  Commerce,  the  humanitarian 
scouts  developed  the  atrocity  theme — not  so  much 
against  the  French  Power  as  against  the  Belgian 
jngmy.  Belgium  and  the  Congo  Free  State  cannot 
resort  to  the  arbitrament  of  that  force  which  as  a 
last  resort  decides  the  contests  of  all  nations. 

The  opportunity  for  attracting  the  co-operation  of 
commercial  factions  in  Germany  was  greatly  pro- 
pitiated by  the  unfortunate  Stokes  incident.  Stokes, 
a  British  subject,  once  a  missionary,  had  become  an 
itinerant  trader,  and  came  into  the  Congo  State  from 
German  East  Africa,  where  he  had  established  head- 
quarters. His  caravan  was  largely  composed  of 
natives  from  German  territory,  and  the  goods  they 
carried  for  the  purpose  of  barter  were  to  a  large  ex- 
tent of  German  manufacture.  When  Stokes  was 
caught,  red-handed,  bartering  guns  and  ammunition 
with  the  native  enemies  of  the  Free  State  for  ivory 
which  they  had  unlawfully  acquired,  he  was  tried 
and  executed.  This  summary  disposal  of  a  trader 
who  had  been  undermining  Belgian  and  native 
security  in  the  Congo  met  with  vehement  protests 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     453 

in  Germany  as  well  as  in  England.  Other  factors 
began  to  operate  in  favour  of  an  Anglo -German 
alliance  against  the  Free  State,  not  the  least  of 
which  was  the  apprehension  felt  in  Hamburg,  Bre- 
men, and  Berlin  over  the  remarkable  progress  the 
Belgians  were  making  with  their  transport  facilities, 
whereby  the  trade  of  German  East  Africa  was  being 
diverted  to  the  Free  State.  For  a  time,  therefore, 
the  German  press  joined  the  British  in  decrying  the 
Belgian  Government  in  Central  Africa.  German 
attacks  upon  the  Congo  State  economic  policy  have, 
however,  been  largely  confined  to  interested  mer- 
chants or  enlisted  politicians.  Herr  von  Bornhaupt, 
Prince  F.  d'Arenberg,  and  Consul  Vohsen  have  been 
actively  identified  with  German  criticism  of  the 
Congo  State's  policy,  notwithstanding  that  Ger- 
many, as  shown  in  a  previous  chapter,  has  inaugur- 
ated a  land  policy  founded  upon  precisely  the  same 
principles  as  those  which  prevail  in  the  Belgian 
Congo.  The  statement  of  Consul  Vohsen  that  "the 
Congo  State's  methods  were  diverting  trade  from  the 
German  East  African  colonies,"  betrays,  perhaps, 
the  only  pretext  upon  which  the  criticism  of  German 
merchants  may  rest. 

Until  recently  the  political  attitude  of  certain 
German  statesmen  toward  the  Belgian  Congo  has 
been  to  bring  about  a  revision  of  the  Berlin  Act  of 
1885.  In  announcing  a  desire  to  form  an  inter- 
national league.  Consul  Vohsen  said  that  its  object 
should  be  to  induce  the  Powers  party  "to  revise 
the  Berlin  Act  and  to  force  the  Congo  State  to  re- 
spect its  provisions."     Europeans  suggest  that  the 


454         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

gentleman  probably  means,  by  this  contradiction  in 
terms,  that  the  real  aim  of  England,  Germany,  and 
France,  working  in  secret  combination  against  the 
energetic  little  fellow  with  the  biggest  part  of  Central 
Africa,  is  to  come  to  an  understanding  which  will  on 
the  part  of  England  realise  the  prophetic  utterance 
of  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  '  and  the  ambitions  of  Lord 
Cromer  and  Sir  Reginald  Wingate  in  the  Cape  to 
Cairo  schemes;  on  the  part  of  Germany,  establish  a 
new  western  frontier  for  German  East  Africa;  and 
on  the  part  of  France,  the  final  adoption  of  definite 
settlements  in  the  Soudan  and  on  the  east  and  south 
banks  of  the  Congo  River.  In  short,  the  million 
square  miles  of  immensely  rich  territory  lying  within 
the  borders  of  the  Congo  Free  State  can,  when  rudely 
wrested  from  the  heroic  pioneers  of  little  Belgium, 
be  used  by  the  three  European  Powers  dominant  in 
Africa  to  enlarge  the  gouty,  the  bilious,  and  the 
apoplectic  tints  of  the  African  continent.  That  such 
views  are  abundant  throughout  Europe,  and  that  the 
humanitarian  pretext  on  the  part  of  Congo  enemies 
is  regarded  with  derision,  is  all  too  evident  from  the 
columns  of  the  leading  continental  journals.  Euro- 
pean editors  have  referred  to  the  Congo  debate  in  the 
British  Parliament  on  May  20,  1903,  as  a  "Parlia- 
mentary raid,"  and  likened  it  to  the  Jameson  Raid 
in  the  Transvaal,  which  acted  on  the  principle  of 
violating  first,  negotiating  afterwards,  but  in  the  end 


*In  a  speech  delivered  by  Mr.  Rhodes,  in  which  he  outlined  his 
scheme  for  linking  Egypt  with  the  Cape,  he  said  that  his  measures,  if 
adopted,  "will  give  to  England  Africa,  the  whole  of  it."  (Boulger, 
P-  373-) 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     455 

bringing  the  whole  subject  within  the  pale  of  dispute, 
speculation,  and  bargain. 

As  long  ago  as  1897,  Belgian  statesmen  were  con- 
vinced that  certain  English  statesmen,  of  whom  Sir 
Charles  Dilke  was  foremost,  had  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  commercial  men  of  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
with  intent  to  settle  upon  a  purpose  of  hostility 
towards  the  Congo  State.  Whatever  there  may- 
have  been  lacking  to  justify  the  Belgians  in  harbour- 
ing this  belief  at  that  time,  intervening  events  have 
unfortunately  confirmed  them  in  their  impression. 
Belgians  connected  with  the  Congo  administration 
in  Brussels  still  maintain  what  they  said  in  1897, 
that  "there  was  a  set  purpose  to  create  for  the 
Congo  State  difiiculties  both  in  Africa  and  in  Europe, 
to  discredit  it  by  magnifying  isolated  facts,  and  by 
preparing,  under  the  colour  of  philanthropy,  the 
moment  when  there  could  be  produced  the  terri- 
torial and  financial  designs  concealed  behind  that 
campaign.  The  plan  is  clearly  traced.  At  the  com- 
mencement a  feint  is  made  that  the  sacrificed  in- 
terests of  the  native  populations  of  the  whole  of 
Africa  is  the  cause  they  have  at  heart,  and  the  idea 
of  a  new  conference  is  put  forward.  As  soon  as 
this  idea  has  appeared  to  germinate  and  public 
opinion  has  been  baited,  it  becomes  a  question  of 
the  Congo  State  alone,  and  the  division  of  its  terri- 
tories is  boldly  spoken  of." 

On  March  2,  1903,  Sir  Charles  Dilke  asked  the 
British  Government  in  the  House  of  Commons 
whether  it  intended  taking  steps  to  procure  the 
co-operation  of  the  principal  signatories  to  the  Berlin 


456         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Act  with  a  view  to  suppressing  abuses  in  the  Congo 
Free  State.  In  reply  the  British  Government  stated 
that  it  did  not  then  contemplate  taking  steps  in  that 
direction.  On  March  3rd,  the  Associated  Chambers 
of  Commerce  of  Great  Britain  met  and  resolved  to 
press  their  grievances  against  the  Congo  State  upon 
the  British  Government.  On  the  nth  of  the  same 
month  Viscount  Cranbourne  declared  that  no  ac- 
tion would  be  taken  to  interfere  with  the  Congo 
State,  as  the  British  Government  had  no  reason  to 
believe  that  slavery  was  tolerated  by  that  State. 
Then  the  Baptist  Union  threw  in  its  weight  on  April 
30th,  and  at  a  meeting  held  in  London,  denounced 
the  concessionaire  system  of  the  Free  State  and  at- 
tributed to  that  system  all  the  cruelties  alleged 
against  the  State.  Meantime  the  British  press, 
which  reeked  with  stories  of  atrocities  in  the  Belgian 
Congo,  had  not  a  word  to  say  against  the  French 
Congo  and  that  concessionaire  system  therein  which 
was  the  Belgian  system  carried  to  extreme.  At  a 
meeting  held  in  London  on  May  6,  1903,  by  the 
Aborigines'  Protection  Society,  W.  H.  Morrison,  an 
American  Congo  missionary,  from  Lexington,  Vir- 
ginia, having  returned  from  a  visit  to  Brussels, 
where  he  had  asked  for  and  been  refused  land  con- 
cessions to  which  special  advantages  should  attach, 
delivered  a  series  of  complaints  against  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  caused  his 
charges  to  be  telegraphed  to  the  press  of  Europe  and 
America.  While  in  Brussels  seeking  extraordinary 
land  concessions,  Mr.  Morrison  did  not  utter  one 
word  of  complaint  against  the  local  administration 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     457 

of  the  Congo.  On  May  7th,  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Commons  again  inquired  whether  a  petition  had 
been  presented  from  British  Chambers  of  Commerce 
or  traders  complaining  that  trading  rights  on  the 
Congo  under  the  BerHn  Act  were  not  respected,  and 
what,  if  anything,  the  British  Government  intended 
doing  in  regard  to  the  matter.  Finally  on  May  20, 
1903,  the  House  of  Commons,  pressed  by  organised 
British  commercial  interests,  passed  the  following 
resolution : 

Resolved,  That  the  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
having,  at  its  inception,  guaranteed  to  the  Powers  that  its 
Native  subjects  should  be  governed  with  humanity,  and  that 
no  trading  monopoly  or  privilege  should  be  permitted  within 
its  dominions,  this  House  requests  His  Majesty's  Government 
to  confer  with  the  other  Powers,  signatories  of  the  Berlin 
General  Act  by  virtue  of  which  the  Congo  Free  State  exists, 
in  order  that  measures  may  be  adopted  to  abate  the  evils 
prevalent  in  that  State. 

On  August  8,  1903,  Lord  Lansdowne  addressed  a 
dispatch  '  to  the  Powers  signatory  to  the  Berlin 
Act,  setting  forth  the  grievances  which  had  been 
brought  to  the  attention  of  his  Government,  and 
suggesting  that : 

In  these  circumstances.  His  Majesty's  Government  con- 
sider that  the  time  has  come  when  the  Powers  parties  to  the 
Berlin  Act  should  consider  whether  the  system  of  trade  now 
prevailing  in  the  Independent  State  is  in  harmony  with  the 
provisions  of  the  Act;  and,  in  particular,  whether  the  system 
of  making  grants  of  vast  areas  of  territory  is  permissible 
under  the  Act  if  the  effect  of  such  grants  is  in  practice  to 
create  a  monopoly  of  trade  by  excluding  all  persons  other 

*  See  Appendix. 


45^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

than  the  concession-holder  from  trading  with  the  natives  in 
that  area.  Such  a  result  is  inevitable  if  the  grants  are  made 
in  favour  of  persons  or  Companies  who  cannot  themselves  use 
the  land  or  collect  its  produce,  but  must  depend  for  obtaining 
it  upon  the  natives,  who  are  allowed  to  deal  only  with  the 
grantees. 

His  Majesty's  Government  will  be  glad  to  receive  any 
suggestions  which  the  Governments  of  the  Signatory  Powers 
may  be  disposed  to  make  in  reference  to  this  important  ques- 
tion, which  might  perhaps  constitute,  wholly  or  in  part,  the 
subject  of  a  reference  to  the  Tribunal  at  The  Hague. 

Three  of  the  Powers,  the  United  States,  Italy,  and 
Turkey,  formally  acknowledged  receipt  of  the  British 
dispatch ;  all  maintained  silence  in  respect  of  it. 

On  September  17,  1903,  the  Government  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  delivered  its  reply  '  and,  pursuing 
the  same  course  as  the  British  Government  had 
followed,  sent  it  to  all  the  interested  Powers.  The 
attitude  of  Europe  concerning  the  issue  thus  joined 
may  be  gathered  from  the  silence  of  the  Powers 
signatory  to  the  Berlin  Act,  and  the  press  comment 
which  the  two  dispatches  evoked.  The  Morning 
Advertiser,  London,  a  conservative  organ,  referring 
to  the  British  dispatch,  said: 

A  weaker  official  document  we  do  not  ever  remember  to 
have  read.  .  .  .  The  use  of  the  word  "alleged"  in  the 
title  of  the  document  gives  the  key  to  its  whole  tone.  The 
note  sets  forth  various  "alleged"  shortcomings  of  the  Congo 
Government,  and  then  says,  lamely: 

"His  Majesty's  Government  do  not  know  precisely  to  what 
extent  these  accusations  may  be  true." 

Surely  this  is  a  very  serious  matter — to  accuse  the  Adminis- 
tration of  a  friendly  State  of  inhumanity  and  "systematic 

*See  Appendix. 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     459 

oppression,"  and  then  to  admit  that  we  do  not  know  whether 
the  accusations  are  true. 

The  leading  article  in  the  Times  (London)  of  the 
same  day  described  the  Congo  State's  reply  as 
"weak,  inconclusive,  and  confused."  While  Lord 
Lansdowne's  note  had  been  published  in  its  en- 
tirety, the  longer  reply  on  behalf  of  the  Congo  Free 
State  was  accorded  scant  space  in  the  British  press. 

From  Black  and  White  (London),  November  21, 
1903: 

To  pile  Peliqn  on  Ossa  in  the  way  of  accusation  only  to 
encounter  a  rebuff  by  being  non-suited,  scarcely  recommends 
itself  to  the  judgment  as  a  course  either  dignified  or  statesman- 
like. Yet  in  the  present  instance  the  fact  that  the  English 
Note  remains  without  a  single  answer  from  the  twelve  States 
to  whom  it  was  addressed  three  months  after  it  was  despatched, 
shows  beyond  question  the  trend  of  Continental  opinion. 

In  the  Standard  (London)  of  October  24,  1903,  the 
following  utterance  would  imply  a  threat: 

The  Belgian  Administration  objects  to  submitting  ques- 
tions of  internal  government  to  arbitration,  but  it  would  do 
well  to  remember  that  there  is  an  alternative  of  a  still  more 
unpleasant  character. 

On  September  19th  the  Morning  Advertiser  (Lon- 
don) has  the  following  to  say  by  way  of  insight  into 
British  desires  in  Congoland: 

Nearly  twenty  years  have  passed  since  a  great  Englishman 
came  through  the  Dark  Continent  and  down  the  Congo,  and 
it  has  always  seemed  a  strange  thing  to  other  Englishmen  that 
the  great  river  of  Central  Africa  should  have  remained  ever  since 
under  the  domination  of  the  smallest  country  in  Europe. 


460  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  general  tone  of  the  British  press  was  in  sup- 
port of  Lord  Lansdowne's  Note,  and  intolerant  of 
the  Congo  State's  reply.  On  the  Continent,  the 
weight  of  opinion  favourably  acknowledged  the 
force  of  the  Congo  State's  reply.  In  France,  Ger- 
many, Austria,  and  Italy  certain  British  journals  were 
severely  criticised  for  suppressing  the  publication  of 
all  evidence  favourable  to  Belgian  rule  in  Congo - 
land,  for  dignifying  the  fulminations  of  E.  D.  Morel, 
the  penman  of  the  merchants  and  shippers  of  Liver- 
pool, the  self-appointed  coroner  of  the  Congo,  sitting 
in  judgment  upon  the  disjecta  membra  which  he  so 
luridly  and  so  falsely  portrays  in  the  books  which 
the  anti-Congo  campaign  incidentally  serves  to  ad- 
vertise. Brief  quotations  from  the  arguments  of 
M.  Etienne,  the  French  Deputy,  have  been  set 
forth  in  a  previous  chapter.  Criticising  the  Lon- 
don Times  for  its  partisanship,  the  Depeche  Coloniale 
of  October  16,  1903   stated  editorially: 

.  .  .  We  invite  the  great  journal  [London  Times]  of  the 
city  to  cease  this  chicanery  which  might  discourage  men  whose 
task  in  Africa  demands  the  co-operation  of  every  one.  In  this 
task,  in  its  success,  we  are  all  interested,  and  the  fact  of  having 
opened  to  commerce  the  immense  territory  of  the  Congo 
should  of  itself  spare  Belgium  the  bitterness  of  misdirected 
criticism. 

In  La  Liberie  (Paris)  the  editor,  referring  to  the 
Congo  State's  reply,  says: 

Now  that  we  have  before  us  the  reply  of  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  we  may  say  that  we  have  reason  from  every  point  of 
view  to  defend  the  Congo  Free  State  against  accusations  as 


d 

at 


S 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     461 

stupid  as  they  are  prejudiced.  England  may  definitely  re- 
nounce the  hope  that  she  had  entertained  of  increasing  her 
colonial  empire  by  means  of  puerile  calumnies. 

The  Phare  de  la  Loire: 

We  should  not  forget  that  a  similar  quarrel  has  been  sought 
for  with  us  [the  French].  French  concessionaires  have  had 
much  trouble  with  two  English  houses — Holt  &  Company  and 
Hatton  &  Cookson  [Liverpool] — whose  agents  had  turned  the 
natives  away  jrmn  French  factories  by  offering  them  exorbitant 
wages. 

The  General  Anzeiger,  October  30,  1903,  is  merely 
quoted  to  indicate  the  violence  to  which  criticism 
of  the  British  dispatch  attained,  not  as  a  specimen 
of  sound  Teutonic  reasoning  nor  of  temperate  com- 
mentary : 

Truly,  when  reading  this  one  hardly  credits  one's  eyes. 
Here  is  what  the  English  Government,  whose  officials  are  al- 
most without  exception  discredited  by  reason  of  their  rude, 
brutal,  and  often  inhuman  attitude  towards  natives;  here 
is  what  is  written  [sic]  on  the  faith  of  pure  colonial  gossip, 
of  unauthenticated  rumour.  It  is  not  ashamed  to  act  thus — 
this  very  Government  whose  cruelties  in  the  last  African  war 
are  still  too  fresh  in  the  memory.  .  .  .  It  is  impossible  to 
say  whether  this  cynical  fashion  of  acting  is  more  striking 
than  the  hypocrisy  which  makes  us  indignant.     .     .     . 

The  Chronique  (Belgium)  of  November  4,  1903, 
contains  an  interview  with  M.  Edmond  Picard,  ad- 
vocate of  the  Belgian  Court  of  Cassation,  from  which 
the  following  is  quoted: 

The  reply  to  the  English  Note  drafted  by  the  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo  appears  to  me  as  nobly  simple,  and  as 


4^2  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

proud  in  form  as  peremptory  in  substance.  As  for  convinc- 
ing the  English  ogre  desirous  of  swallowing  up  the  Belgian 
Congo  as  it  swallowed  up  the  Transvaal  and  Orange  State — 
it  would  be  ridiculous  to  hope  for  this.  This  people  is  as  en- 
thusiastic a  brigand  as  a  nation  as  it  is  honest  and  loyal  in 
the  individual. 

The  Miinster  Westphal,  November  3,  1903: 

The  insatiable  English  greed  claims  a  new  prey.  The  two 
Republics  have  been  happily  swallowed  and  digested.  What 
is  to  be  served  up  now?  That  fine  phrase,  "British  Africa 
from  the  Cape  to  Cairo,"  has  been  recalled  at  the  right  mo- 
ment, and  it  is  remarked  that  the  Congo  State  is  still  one  of 
the  obstacles  to  the  realisation  of  that  phrase  freely  quoted 
by  our  cousins.  And  hardly  were  the  two  Boer  Republics 
given  up  to  British  domination  than  commenced,  at  first  a 
little  timidly,  then  with  more  effrontery  and  brutality,  the 
chase  of  the  Congo  State.  A  mass  of  trifles  were  then  put 
forward  with  incredible  exaggeration;  the  pretext  for  the 
agitation  against  the  Congo  State  was  given:  "British  Africa 
from  the  Cape  to  Cairo,"  that  is  the  objective  of  the  anti- 
Congolese.     No  one  is  deceived  about  it. 

The  Kleine  Journal  (BerHn),  October  21,  1903, 
contains  the  following  admonition  from  the  well- 
known  explorer,  Eugene  Wolf: 

"The  Germans  to  the  front!"  such  has  always  been  the  cry 
of  the  English  when  they  have  need  of  some  one  to  take  the 
chestnuts  out  of  the  fire  for  them. 

"The  Germans  to  the  front!"  has  also  been  the  cry  of  the 
English  in  the  question  of  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo. 
And  in  this  matter  also  the  English  have  found  among  us  a 
fool;  for  the  aid  which  England  has  found  in  this  Congolese 
question  quite  needlessly  exaggerated  cannot  come  from  the 
heart  of  the  German  nation,  but  from  the  mouth  of  a  member 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     463 

of  the  German  Colonial  Society,  inhabiting  Berlin,  making 
himself  of  importance,  and  who,  turning  to  account  a  residence 
many  years  ago  on  the  east  and  west  coasts  of  Africa,  invok- 
ing his  title  as  retired  Consul,  and  his  possession  of  a  colonial 
library,  gives  himself  out  as  the  spokesman  authorised  by  the 
nation  in  order  to  pass  himself  off  on  his  own  authority  as 
infallible  in  colonial  matters.  With  the  war  cry :  "The  trade 
of  Germany  is  intercepted  by  the  agents  of  the  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo,  and  we  must  settle  it!"  this  gentleman, 
whose  name  is  known  to  everybody,  has  made  an  attempt 
which  has  evidently  remained  unfruitful  of  stirring  up 
Germany  against  Belgium  and  of  disturbing  the  feelings  of 
good  neighbourship  and  the  commercial  relations  existing 
between  the  two  countries.  The  persons  who  have  seriously 
at  heart  the  interests  of  the  German  colonies  do  not  allow 
themselves  to  be  taken  in  by  this  trick.  And  if  the  Congo 
State  is  governed  in  a  more  profitable  fashion  than  our  own 
colonies,  we  must  heed  their  example  and  imitate  it.  After 
all,  it  is  not  only  with  the  object  of  realising  permanent 
deficits  that  we  have  acquired  our  colonies. 

The  Corner e  Toscano  (Italy),  October  31,  1903: 

There  is  on  the  Congo  as  in  every  civilised  country  only 
one  justice ;  blacks  and  whites  are  subject  to  the  same  laws, 
and  the  State's  motto,  Work  and  Progress,  is  adopted  and 
followed  by  all  with  the  greatest  ardour. 

Finally  the  views  of  some  of  the  leading  journals 
of  the  United  States,  manifestly  free  from  bias, 
founded  on  self-interest,  may  be  interesting. 

The  Evening  Transcript  (Boston). 

The  Congo  Administration  has  not  waited  for  any  com- 
mission of  inquiry  to  sit.  It  has  already  replied  fully  to  the 
charges  brought  against  it,  but  no  reply  will  silence  its 
accusers.     They  want  the  Congo's  riches,  not  its  King's  de- 


4^4         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

fence,  and  will  continue  clamouring  until  the  utter  futility  of 
their  shouting  threats  at  Leopold  is  brought  home  to  them. 
Already  they  have  prepared  a  map,  a  copy  of  which  is  before 
me  as  I  write,  of  the  Free  State  of  the  Congo  partitioned  out 
as  they  wish.  The  districts  to  be  offered  as  bribes  to  France 
and  Germany  are  duly  marked  on  it,  but  they  are  small.  The 
plotters  do  not  hide  their  hands,  they  show  clearly  that  Eng- 
land, and  England's  puppet  Egypt,  is  to  take  the  lion's  share. 
This,  which  I  have  related,  accounts  for  the  tumult  of 
popular  opinion  in  England,  always  easily  stirred  up  by  such 
tales.  Multitudes,  misled  by  the  cheap,  if  genuine,  sympathy 
felt  with  the  oppressed,  join  unthinkingly  in  the  cries  against 
the  Congo. 

From  the  New  York  Press: 

Those  missionaries  who  are  urging  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment to  interfere  in  the  quarrel  between  the  British  and 
the  Congo  Governments  doubtless  mean  well,  but  they  fail  to 
offer  any  valid  reason  why  this  country  should  entangle  itself 
in  a  matter  in  which  it  has  no  especial  interest.  The  British 
Government  has  demanded,  and  the  Belgian  Government  has 
conceded,  all  reasonable  protection  and  privileges  for  the 
missionaries  labouring  in  Congoland. 

The  other  demands  of  the  British  with  regard  to  the  basin 
of  the  great  African  river  are  not  entirely  devoid  of  a  tinge 
of  self-interest,  and  it  would  be  entirely  improper  for  the 
United  States  to  interfere  at  all  in  the  matter.  If  an  Ameri- 
can missionary  in  the  Congo  is  oppressed,  or  his  treaty  rights 
as  an  American  citizen  in  any  way  violated,  the  State  De- 
partment could  and  would  interfere  in  that  particular  case, 
but  further  than  that  the  missionaries  ought  not  to  expect 
this  country  to  go.  Missionaries,  while  most  excellent  and 
self-sacrificing  people,  are  not  perfect,  and  one  of  their  im- 
perfections is  that  in  all  parts  of  the  world  they  are  a  little  too 
anxious  to  bring  about  the  interference  of  their  home  Power 
in  the  affairs  of  the  Government  in  whose  territory  they  are 
labouring. 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     465 

The  Public  Ledger  (Philadelphia),  October  26, 
1903: 

The  acquisition  by  Great  Britain  of  the  Congo  State  would 
not  only  join  her  separate  dominions,  but  would  give  her  an 
immense  territory  of  the  most  wonderful  wealth.  Not  only 
so,  but  it  would  open  to  British  Central  Africa  and  Rhodesia 
an  outlet  to  the  sea  down  the  Congo,  and  give  even  the  Trans- 
vaal a  chance  of  trading  with  England  through  a  port  on  that 
great  river,  saving  2000  miles  of  the  sea  voyage  to  London. 

English  horror  at  Belgian  mismanagement  of  Congoland  is 
easily  understood  in  the  light  of  these  facts.  Does  any  one 
imagine  that  the  British  conscience  would  be  so  sensitive 
about  cruelties  alleged  to  have  been  committed  in  lands  not 
contiguous  to  British  territory,  and  not  extremely  desirable 
as  annexations?  The  crime  of  King  Leopold  is  that  he  has 
developed  a  colony  which  England  wants. 

Sufficient  has  been  quoted  to  indicate  that  the 
silence  of  the  Powers  in  regard  to  the  British  dispatch 
of  August  8,  1903,  was  fairly  interpreted  by  the 
press  of  Europe.  The  meaning  of  that  silence  is 
unmistakable.  British  ministers  having  been  mis- 
led to  undertake  a  serious  diplomatic  act  which  was 
admittedly  based  on  commercial  grievance  and  un- 
proved accusations,  it  now  became  necessary  to 
]:)ack  up  the  charges  contained  in  Lord  Lansdowne's 
dispatch  by  something  seemingly  more  tangible  than 
the  complaints  of  persons  peculiarly  interested  in 
doing  mischief  to  the  Government  of  the  Congo 
Free  State.  It  is  the  British  view  that  the  official 
report  of  Mr.  Roger  Casement,  British  Consul  at 
Boma,  in  the  Congo  Free  State,  dated  December  11, 
1903,  four  months  after  the  Powers  had  been  appealed 
to,  supplied  the  necessary  confirmation  of  all  that  may 


466  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

have  been  lacking  to  justify  the  precipitate  diplo- 
matic act  of  August  8th  which  had  met  with  rebuff. 

The  report  ^  and  enclosures  of  Consul  Casement 
would  occupy  approximately  one  hundred  and 
eighty  pages  of  this  volume.  It  is  an  interesting 
account  of  a  brief  journey  on  the  Upper  Congo  dur- 
ing a  period  of  two  and  a  half  months,  most  of  which 
was  spent  in  the  Equatorial  district.  The  report 
contains  many  paragraphs  in  praise  of  the  wonderful 
changes  wrought  by  the  Belgians  in  the  Congo  during 
the  last  twenty  years.  There  are  other  passages  in 
the  report  which  condemn  the  land  and  concession- 
aire system  of  the  State.  Enclosed  in  the  volumin- 
ous document  are  statements  from  Protestant 
missionaries  and  certain  natives  concerning  alleged 
atrocities.  As  the  official  reply  of  the  Government 
of  the  Congo  Free  State,  brief  as  it  is,  deals  fairly 
and  fully  with  the  essential  allegations  in  Mr.  Case- 
ment's report,  it  has  been  set  out  in  full  in  the 
Appendix. 

In  T 0-Day  (London),  December  i6,  1903,  Mr. 
John  Henderson,  an  experienced  traveller  who  had 
visited  the  Congo  to  ascertain  for  his  journal  the  true 
state  of  affairs  under  Belgian  rule  in  the  Free  State, 
wrote  the  following  amongst  other  interesting  com- 
ments on  Consul  Casement's  Report: 

I  suggest  that  we  should  be  careful  in  our  condemnation  of 
the  methods  of  the  Congo  Government.  The  agents  of  the 
State  are  subject  to  perils  and  dangers  unheard  of,  undreamed 
of  by  the  people  in  comfortable  Britain — the  climate,  the  con- 
dition of  living,  and  the  natives  combine  to  make  life  always 

^Africa,  No.  i,  1904. 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     467 

uncertain,  and  at  times  absolutely  terrible.  In  Europe,  or 
the  West  Indies,  or  Australia,  or  in  any  fairly  salubrious 
country,  the  methods  of  Free  State  agents  as  pursued  in 
Congoland  might  be  judged  barbarous,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
judge  the  methods  of  the  peoples  of  all  countries  and  climates 
by  one  standard  of  ethics. 

For  my  part,  I  shall  hesitate  to  praise  or  blame  the  Congo 
State  by  this  report  alone.  I  have  little  doubt  that  some  of 
the  facts  Mr.  Casement  will  bring  forward  will  be  extremely 
shocking  (while  in  the  Congo  I  was  several  times  shocked 
myself),  but  these  reports  of  excesses  will  not  prejudice  me 
for  or  against  the  State.  If  Mr.  Casement  will  furnish  us  with 
reports  which  will  show  us  the  exact  conditions  prevailing 
among  the  other  West  African  districts — the  French  Congo, 
the  Portuguese  Congo,  German  West  Africa,  Nigeria,  and  the 
Gold  Coast — then  I  shall  hope  to  arrive  at  a  more  or  less 
correct  understanding  of  the  matter.  Cruelty  and  excess  un- 
doubtedly exist  in  the  Congo  Free  State,  but  my  experience 
in  Congoland  taught  me  that  those  guilty  of  any  crime  who 
come  before  the  notice  of  State  agents  were  severely  punished. 

To  carry  on  the  anti -Congo  campaign  in  the 
United  States,  the  Congo  Reform  Association  of 
Liverpool  has  established  headquarters  at  Boston. 
Its  organisation  includes  a  secretary,  pamphleteers, 
press  writers,  and  Protestant  missionaries.  It  prints 
and  sends  broadcast  to  the  press  of  America  a 
weekly  "News  Letter,"  composed  of  articles  de- 
signed to  intensify  agitation  against  the  Belgians  in 
the  Congo.  It  is  sagaciously  understood  by  its  sup- 
porters that  one  missionary  with  imagination  and 
glib  speech,  turned  loose  on  society  in  America  or 
Europe,  can  make  more  noise,  effect  more  mischief, 
do  more  to  prostitute  Christian  work  in  foreign 
lands,  than  twenty  earnest,  patient,  toiling,  praying 


468  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

missionaries  can  accomplish  for  humanity  by  mind- 
ing God's  work  in  the  dark  heart  of  Africa.  That 
concession  -  seeking,  commercially  -  inclined  Congo 
missionaries  should  be  enabled  to  gratify  their  de- 
sire for  notoriety  after  the  fashion  of  the  Congo 
coroner,  Mr.  Morel,  and  gain  the  slightest  connection 
with  American  Missionary  Societies,  is  only  to  be 
accounted  for  by  the  large  financial  support  which, 
having  prevailed  in  England,  may  be  presumed  to 
lie  back  of  the  campaign  in  America.  There  are 
certain  phases  of  the  Congolese  question  since  1897 
by  which  even  a  disinterested  observer  is  deeply 
impressed.  The  large  financial  support  and  the 
numerous  agencies  it  employs  is  one  of  them. 

So  far  the  attitude  of  the  American  press  has  been 
eminently  disinterested.  Its  leading  journals  have 
shown  a  keen  insight  into  the  motives  which  under- 
lie a  campaign  that  has  been  overdone  to  the  dis- 
gust of  all  fair-minded  observers.  There  is,  in  all 
colonies,  whether  under  British,  German,  American, 
French,  or  Belgian  rule,  ample  opportunity  for 
criticism.  There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  even  greater 
opportunity  for  help  and  co-operation.  The  de- 
moralising story  of  British  Lagos  is  alone  sufficient 
to  make  British  criticism  of  every  other  nation's 
colonies  pusillanimous.  Acts  of  cruelty  by  natives, 
foreigners,  or  by  State  servants  are  in  violation,  not 
in  consequence,  of  the  Congo  State's  system  of 
government.  For  such  infractions  of  the  law  the 
individual,  not  the  State,  is  responsible.  But  when 
the  support  of  a  British  colony  is  derived  from  a 
debasing  traffic  in  alcohol  for  whose  existence  the 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     469 

home  Government  is  directly  responsible,  that  Gov- 
ernment should  not  assume  the  grotesque  position 
of  custos  morum  of  Africa. 

The  Lagos  Standard,  reputed  to  be  favourable  to 
the  British  Government,  referring  to  the  Colony's 
revenue  for  1 901 -1902,  says: 

It  would  appear  that  the  chief  and  ruling  tendency  of  the 
successive  administrations  has  been  to  draw  from  the  Colony 
the  fullest  possible  revenue,  the  greater  part  of  which  is  spent 
in  salaries  of  the  officials.  Every  effort  has  been  made  in  that 
direction,  and  no  resource  that  ingenuity  can  appeal  to  was 
spared  in  order  to  reach  that  purpose.     .     . 

The  revenue  derived  from  import  duties  on  spirits,  gin, 
rum,  alcohol,  whisky,  reached  65.53  %  of  the  total  revenue 
of  the  Colony.^  To  this  add  the  licences  for  the  sale  of  spirits, - 
which  brings  up  the  contributive  share  of  spirits  in  the  bud- 
get's receipts  to  67.53  %.     .     .     . 

Alcohol  is  the  great  staple  of  trade.  By  visiting  Lagos, 
one  would  be  inclined  to  believe  that  it  is  practically  the  only 
commodity.  Everywhere  on  the  huge  quay,  extending  sev- 
eral miles,  where  large  business  houses  are  established,  on 
their  wharfs,  in  their  warehouses,  are  accumulated  heaps  of 
green  cases  and  pyramids  of  demijohns  of  gin  and  rum.  All 
the  important  stores  have  the  same  signboard,  bearing  in 
large  letters  the  words.  Wholesale  Spirit  Merchants,  and  from 
morning  to  night,  every  day  of  the  week,  there  is  on  the 
lagoon  a  continual  traffic  of  large  steamers  coming  in  to  dis- 
charge their  cargo  and  leaving  empty.  On  the  quay  there  is 
a  continual  movement  of  black  porters  carrying  cases  of 
spirits  on  their  heads,  which  they  either  pile  up  by  thousands 
in  the  warehouses,  or  remove  them  therefrom  in  order  to 
load  the  boats,  which  are  powerful  launches  of  the  native 
traders  who  spread  the  poison  all  over  the  markets  of  the 
villages  alongside  the  lagoon  and  its  affluents. 

>  Message  of  the  Governor  to  the  Legislative  Council,  February  26, 
1903,  p.  9.  '  Blue  Book,  1902,  p.  21. 


470  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  quality  of  these  horrible  goods  has  been  too  often 
described  to  render  it  necessary  to  revert  to  the  subject. 
Their  price  says  sufficient:  4^d.  per  litre,  bottle  and  pack- 
ing included!  The  Government  analyst  found  them  to  con- 
tain extremely  strong  poisons  known  under  the  name  of 
fusel  oils,  in  the  enormous  proportion  of  from  1.46  to  4.31  % 
of  the  weight.'  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  after  absorbing 
several  bottles  of  this  poisonous  liquor,  the  drinker  should  be 
overcome  by  a  sort  of  madness?  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that 
criminality  is  on  the  increase,  that  the  birth  rate  is  on  the 
decrease,  that  this  magnificent  race  of  Yoruba  agriculturists 
is  speedily  degenerating? 

Where  Europe,  whose  interests  in  Africa  are 
material  as  well  as  moral,  has  not  seen  fit  to  join  a 
British  traders'  campaign  against  a  small  neutral- 
ised State,  it  would  seem  that  the  United  States 
Government  could  not  be  led  into  action  on  the  pre- 
text that  its  recognition  of  a  friendly  Government  in- 
vested it  with  police  powers  over  the  internal  affairs 
of  the  State  so  recognised.  "Territory"  and  "com- 
merce" are  the  tightly  furled,  secretly  carried  banners 
of  the  raid  upon  the  Congo  State.  This  exagger- 
ated humanitarian  solicitude  for  the  African  black  is 
purely  pretence.  By  its  hypocrisy,  falsehood,  and 
disputative  vulgarisation,  the  movement,  instead  of 
remedying  what  evils  exist  in  all  African  colonies, 
is  made  utterly  puerile.  By  such  vituperative  fan- 
faronade as  the  following,  rational  minds  are  made 
to  turn  from  the  subject  in  disgust:  ^ 

Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  Congo. 

The  tale  is  told — the  tale  of  "  King  Leopold's  rule  in  Africa." 
I  Message  of  the  Governor,  p.  8.  *  E.  D.  Morel. 


Attitude  of  Europe  and  United  States     471 

A  piratical  expedition  on  a  scale  incredibly  colossal.  The 
perfection  of  its  hypocrisy ;  the  depth  of  its  low  cunning ;  its 
pitiable  intrigues ;  the  illimitableness  of  its  egotism ;  its  moral 
hideousness ;  the  vastness  and  madness  of  its  crimes — the 
heart  sickens  and  the  mind  rebels  at  the  thought  of  them. 
A  perpetual  nightmare  reeking  with  vapours  of  vile  ambi- 
tions— cynical,  fantastic,  appalling.  A  tragedy  which  ap- 
pears unreal,  so  unutterably  ghastly  its  concomitants,  but  the 
grimness  of  whose  reality  is  incapable  of  superlative  treat- 
ment. Destroying,  decimating,  degrading,  its  poisonous 
breath  sweeps  through  the  forests  of  the  Congo.  Men  fall 
beneath  it  as  grass  beneath  the  scythe,  by  slaughter,  famine, 
torture,  sickness,  and  misery.  Women  and  children  flee  from 
it,  but  not  fast  enough,  though  the  mother  destroy  the  un- 
born life  within  her  that  her  feet  may  drag  less  heavily  through 
the  bush. 

There  has  been  nothing  quite  comparable  with  it  since  the 
world  was  made.     The  world  can  never  see  its  like  again. 

Sufficient  that  it  exists,  that  each  month,  each  year,  the 
terror  of  this  Oppression  grows,  immolating  fresh  victims, 
demanding  new  offerings  to  minister  to  its  lusts,  spreading  in 
ever  wider  circles  the  area  of  its  abominations. 

After  that,  what  can  one  say  or  do  except  to  ap- 
preciate one's  sense  of  humour,  and  the  lack  of  it 
in  a  zealot?    A  tower  of  babel  on  a  pile  of  words! 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 
SUMMARY,  RETROSPECT,  AND  PROPHECY 

THE  rise  and  progress  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
marks  a  unique  page  in  modern  history.  The 
boldness  of  the  State's  conception,  the  ap- 
parent hopelessness  of  its  early  conditions  in  a 
region  unspeakably  savage  and  barbarous,  its  grad- 
ual evolution  under  the  magic  touch  of  a  master 
hand;  the  horrifying  vicissitudes  of  its  bloody  re- 
demption from  the  accursed  slave -raider,  and  finally 
its  admission  into  the  society  of  independent  nations, 
constitute  a  set  of  circumstances  unparelleled  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  The  span  of  its  life  from  a 
wilderness  to  a  self-supporting  and  prosperous  State 
is  about  twenty-five  years.  Its  rapid  evolution  was 
at  first  watched  with  sneers  and  derision.  During 
the  last  ten  years  it  has  been  the  object  of  the  hostile 
vigilance  of  those  whose  early  regard  had  been  scorn. 
Young  as  it  is,  a  considerable  literature  already  ex- 
ists descriptive  of  the  infant  State.  This  literature, 
however,  is  very  unsatisfactory,  being  for  the  most 
part  bitterly  partisan,  either  perceiving  no  good 
point  at  all  in  King  Leopold's  rule,  or  regarding  that 
rule  as  a  perfect  thing  in  which  no  improvement  is 
possible.  Neither  attitude  is  just.  And  this  may 
be  said  not  only  of  the  Congo  Free  State  and  its  ir- 

472 


Summary,  Retrospect,  and  Prophecy     473 

resolute  and  disappointing  African  neighbours,  but 
of  States  whose  civiHsation  is  the  pride  of  our  own 
times. 

There  have  been  error  and  crime  on  the  Congo  as 
there  have  been  error  and  crime  on  the  Thames  and 
the  Hudson.  Savages  left  the  banks  of  the  Thames 
nearly  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  The  white  man 
came  and  refined  their  cruelties  in  a  thousand  ways 
now  practised  by  civilisation  behind  the  curtain  and 
the  padded  door. 

The  aboriginal  black  cannibal  still  occupies  the 
banks  of  the  Congo.  But  his  nature,  so  recently  in 
its  savage  state,  is  manifesting  great  change.  He  is 
on  his  knees  in  the  mission  chapel;  the  song  of  the 
White  Fathers  and  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  inspires  in 
him  the  rude  awakening  of  new  emotions.  His  own 
voice  abandons  the  war-cry  and  makes  its  fervid, 
untaught  plea  to  the  white  man's  God. 

On  the  Congo,  religion  is  perforce  a  plain,  sincere, 
and  a  comforting  thing.  It  is  taught  by  a  small, 
earnest  band  of  men  and  women  whom  the  epithets 
of  the  flaccid,  arm-chair  colonising  hero  will  not  dis- 
turb. These  rugged  Christian  teachers  pursue  their 
lowly,  patient  work  to  please  God — not  Liverpool. 
On  the  Congo,  the  gospel  knows  nothing  of  the 
elaborations  of  insincerity,  sophistry,  and  cant.  It 
finds  the  soul  of  the  black  man  in  a  patient  and  a 
[practical  way  by  instructing  his  body  in  the  habits 
of  honest  toil,  of  cleanliness  and  decency,  and  by 
developing  an  intelligence  to  supersede  his  savage 
instinct. 

The  results  of  only  twenty  years'  guidance  in  this 


474         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

direction  are  manifest  to-day.  They  have  placed 
the  Negro  in  the  midst  of  the  uncovered  wealth  of  a 
vast  and  fertile  country ;  of  waterways  teeming  with 
traffic;  of  a  magnificent  forest  stored  with  rubber; 
timber  of  great  variety,  ivory,  oil,  and  fruit;  of 
promising  fields  of  coffee,  cotton,  cocoa,  tea,  and 
sugar;  deposits  of  gold,  copper,  coal,  and  iron.  This 
short  era  of  civilisation  has  created  in  the  Congo 
over  four  hundred  commercial  houses  doing  a  thriv- 
ing business  with  Europe;  built  railways  over 
mountain  routes  where  only  Belgian  engineers  and 
Belgian  capital  had  the  courage  and  the  skill  to 
venture.  In  the  midst  of  it  all  the  black  man's 
hands  and  acquired  energy  have  provided  him  with 
new  value  to  himself  and  to  the  State.  He  is  at  the 
plough,  on  the  cart  and  the  railway,  on  the  wharf 
and  upon  the  road  and  the  farm,  in  the  shop  and 
factory,  learning  the  uses  of  the  white  man's  im- 
plements of  labour,  and  imitating  his  enlightened 
ways.  Industry  and  order,  Christianity,  civilisa- 
tion, and  material  progress  have  succeeded  tribal 
wars,  cannibalism,  and  the  horrible  atrocities  of  the 
slave  chase.  This  has  been  achieved  by  the  brawny 
men  of  Belgium  in  less  than  twenty  years. 

The  smug  men  of  the  study,  untra veiled  in  re- 
gions wilder  than  Westminster,  St.  Albans,  or  Liver- 
pool, are  as  incompetent  to  judge  of  civilisation  in 
Congoland  as  are  the  Manyema  of  the  lack  of  it  on 
Park  Lane,  in  London.  Their  beautiful  theories  of 
civilising  the  African  Negro  with  illuminated  manu- 
scripts, florid  dissertations  on  the  Berlin  Act,  and 
freedom  of  (alcoholic)  commerce,  constitute  a  pyra- 


Summary,  Retrospect,  and  Prophecy     475 

mid  of  fustian  with  but  a  single  thought  starring 
its  apex — Empire. 

While  the  English  campaign  against  the  Congo 
Administration  was  confined  to  nebulous  libels,  pro- 
ceeding for  the  greater  part  from  wrangling  mission- 
aries and  aggressive  traders,  it  was  the  policy  of  that 
Administration,  conscious  of  its  own  rectitude,  to 
ignore  the  attacks  made  upon  it.  In  light  of  sub- 
sequent events,  the  wisdom  of  that  course  appears 
open  to  question.  Did  not  one  of  England's  poets 
observe  that  a  lie  seven  times  repeated  without  being 
challenged  acquires  the  force  of  truth  ?  Some  of  the 
fiction  concocted  by  enemies  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
has  been  so  industriously  reiterated  by  so  many 
different  agents  of  English  traders  that,  collectively, 
the  British  Government  could  no  longer  refuse  to 
give  ear  to  their  vapourings.  Whether  the  British 
Government  did  so  willingly  or  unwillingly  is  another 
story.  What  has  been  the  outcome  of  that  Govern- 
ment's acquiescence  in  the  demands  of  the  slanderers 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  the  world  now  knows.  Mr. 
Roger  Casement  was  sent  to  the  Free  State,  where 
he  traversed  ground  carefully  mapped  out  for  him, 
and  interviewed  natives  specially  instructed  in  their 
parts  by  the  persons  whose  agitation  had  occasioned 
his  mission.  The  result  was  precisely  what  might 
have  been  expected,  and  that  without  impeachment 
of  Mr.  Casement's  integrity — an  inaccurate  and  par- 
tial report.  That  report,  magnified,  distorted,  garbled, 
has  afforded  material  for  the  enemies  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  upon  which  they  have  not  yet  ceased  to 
work.     The  refutation  of  all  its  more  important  pro- 


47^         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

nouncements  will  probably  not  disconcert  Mr.  Case- 
ment's believers  in  the  least,  as  they  are  immune  to 
the  logic  of  facts.  Nevertheless,  the  Sovereign  of 
the  Congo  Free  State,  in  order  that  the  world  may 
not  accept  as  a  thing  against  which  no  defence  can 
be  made  the  judgment  passed  upon  his  rule  by  the 
cliques  banded  together  to  embarrass  or  overthrow 
it,  in  July,  1904,  resolved  to  send  a  special  com- 
mission to  the  Congo  to  inquire  into  the  atrocities 
alleged  to  have  been  committed. 

The  Committee  of  Inquiry  appointed  by  King  Leo- 
pold consists  of  the  following  members:  (i)  M.  Jans- 
sens,  Advocate-General  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Belgium,  president;  (2)  Baron  Nisco,  Judge  of  the 
Court  of  Appeal  at  Boma,  and  (3)  Dr.  De  Schu- 
macher. M.  Janssens,  who  as  Advocate -General 
holds  the  second  highest  judicial  office  in  Belgium, 
is  a  Belgian;  Baron  Nisco  is  an  Italian,  and  Dr. 
Schumacher  is  a  Swiss.  Assisting  these  three  heads 
of  the  mission  are  MM.  De  Neyn  and  Gregoire  and 
Professor  Dupont,  all  of  whom  are  Belgians.  These 
gentlemen  constitute  a  Court  of  Inquiry,  and  their 
instructions  are  to  investigate  closely  every  detail 
of  Congo  administration,  and  to  examine  on  oath 
every  person  who  may  be  able  to  give  evidence  of  a 
nature  valuable  to  the  commission.  The  testimony 
of  missionaries  and  traders  is  now  being  taken,  and 
the  committee  will  see  to  it  that  they  obtain  the 
evidence  of  the  heads  of  British  and  American,  as 
well  as  of  Belgian,  French,  German,  and  Italian 
missions.  The  investigations  are  being  held  in  many 
parts  of  the   State.     The   committee   is   to   travel 


Summary,  Retrospect,  and  Prophecy    477 

throughout  the  country  into  all  the  districts  covered 
by  Mr.  Casement  in  his  recent  tour  of  inspection,  be- 
sides visiting  many  places  Mr.  Casement  never  saw. 
In  brief,  the  committee  is  to  hold  inquiry  wherever 
evidence  can  be  obtained.  Where  native  witnesses 
give  evidence  of  a  nature  prejudicial  to  white  men, 
the  committee  will  see  that  such  witnesses  are  pro- 
tected from  the  possibility  of  suffering  at  the  hands 
of  officials  against  whom  they  may  bear  witness. 
The  Government  of  the  Congo  holds  itself  respon- 
sible for  the  safety  and  well-being  of  such  witnesses. 
On  this  latter  point  King  Leopold  has  expressed 
himself  in  the  strongest  possible  terms.  Inquiries 
are  to  be  held  publicly,  open  to  all.  The  committee 
has  the  right  to  compel  witnesses  to  appear  before 
it.  A  general  instruction  to  the  committee  asks 
for  a  report  laying  bare  absolutely  the  condition  of 
the  rule  in  the  Congo  to-day,  and  enjoins  it  to  devote 
all  its  efforts  to  a  full  and  entire  revelation  of  the 
truth.  The  duration  of  the  stay  of  the  Committee 
of  Inquiry  in  Congoland  is  limited  only  by  the 
exigencies  of  its  task.  The  committee  sailed  from 
Southampton,  in  the  Belgian  SS.  Philippeville,  on 
September  i6,  1904,  and  arrived  at  Boma  early  in 
October. 

Such  are  the  constitution,  powers,  and  purpose  of 
the  Committee  of  Inquiry  now  at  work  in  the  Congo 
Free  State.  It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  record  that 
the  committee  has  already  been  denounced  by  the 
enemies  of  the  State  on  ever}^  conceivable  ground. 
"A  farcical  commission"  and  "a  bogus  inquiry"  are 
two  of  the  descriptions  which  have  been  applied  to 


478  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

it.  That  indefatigable  meddler,  Mr.  H.  R.  Fox 
Bourne,  who  writes  contemptuously  of  Stanley  and 
his  work,  objected  to  Dr.  Schumacher's  presence  on 
the  committee  on  the  ground  that  he  is  a  brother  of 
King  Leopold's  private  secretary.  On  its  being 
pointed  out  that  Dr.  Schumacher  is  nothing  of  the 
kind,  Mr.  Fox  Bourne  retracts  his  assertion,  and 
substitutes  another  equally  unfounded.  Upon  this 
second  statement  being  questioned,  Mr.  Fox  Bourne 
withdraws  that  also,  and  falls  back  upon  his  com- 
plaint that  the  members  of  the  Committee  of 
Inquiry  will  be  paid  for  their  labours.  Such  conten- 
tions are  simply  fatuous.  Does  not  the  Aborigines' 
Protection  Society  pay  Mr.  Fox  Bourne  for  his 
labours  ? 

During  the  few  years  in  which  the  Belgians  have 
been  criticised  for  their  progressive  rule  in  the  Congo, 
the  Belgian  people  have  heartily  co-operated  with 
their  King  in  his  long  and  arduous  work.  There 
has  been,  however,  a  small  but  active  section  in  the 
Belgian  Chamber  spasmodically  opposed  to  the 
Congo,  and  to  any  other  expansion  of  territory, 
influence,  or  market,  on  the  part  of  Belgium.  This 
set  of  politicians,  acting  in  suspicious  harmony  with 
the  foreign  enemies  of  the  Congo  State,  have  been 
exploited  by  the  latter  as  representing  the  attitude 
of  the  Belgian  people.  To  carr}^  out  this  deception, 
certain  foreign  papers,  peculiarly  interested  in  the 
affairs  of  Liverpool  merchants  with  African  schemes, 
publish  the  speeches  of  this  disloyal  minority,  and 
suppress  the  addresses  of  Baron  de  Favereau,  Min- 
ister of  Foreign  Affairs,  Count  de  Smet  de  Naeyer, 


Summary,  Retrospect,  and  Prophecy    479 

Minister  of  Finance  and  Public  Works,  and  other 
Belgian  statesmen.  In  a  masterly  arraignment  of 
those  members  of  the  Chamber  who  have  been  hos- 
tile to  Belgium  in  this  respect,  these  gentlemen,  by 
their  speeches  in  Parliament,  inspired  the  organisa- 
tion, in  July,  1903,  of  a  federation  composed  of 
religious,  commercial,  industrial,  social,  and  scien- 
tific societies  throughout  Belgium.  This  large  and 
representative  bod}^  is  known  as  The  Federation 
for  the  Defence  of  Belgian  Interests  Abroad.  Its 
short  address,  presented  to  President  Roosevelt  in 
October,  1904,  has  already  been  referred  to.  In  a 
speech  made  at  a  meeting  of  the  societies  allied  to 
the  Federation,  General  Baron  Wahis,  President  of 
the  Brussels  African  Club,  and  Governor-General 
of  the  Congo  Free  State,  eloquently  contrasted  the 
condition  of  the  Central  African  tribes  twenty  years 
ago  with  their  improved  state  to-day.  Baron 
Wahis  and  Vice -Governor-General  Fuchs  are  men 
on  the  spot.  Their  long  experience  on  the  Congo 
invests  their  statements  with  authority.  In  the 
address  referred  to.  Baron  Wahis  narrated  the  fol- 
lowing graphic  picture  of  Congolese  conditions  two 
decades  ago. 

Let  us  see  in  what  position  these  peoples  were  before  the 
formation  of  the  State,  and  what  is  their  position  now. 

In  tlie  Lower  Congo,  close  to  the  sea,  there  was  one  locality 
which  already  possessed  some  importance,  viz.,  Boma.  Be- 
fore the  first  expedition  of  the  State  landed  at  Boma  there 
were  at  that  point  some  commercial  liouses.  For  a  long 
period  they  derived  their  profits  from  the  sale  of  slaves; 
later,  they  obtained  their  chief  profits  from  the  sale  of  alcohol, 


480  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

and,  accessorily,  of  the  products  of  the  soil.  The  traders 
carried  on  a  more  or  less  prosperous  business  according  to 
their  strength  and  courage.  They  made  expeditions  into  the 
interior,  and  frequently  burnt  native  villages  for  not  bringing 
in  at  fixed  periods  the  expected  quantities  of  palm  nuts  and 
other  products.  Their  staff  of  labourers  was  composed  of 
slaves  upon  whom  they  inflicted  torments  for  the  least  in- 
fraction of  their  orders.  These  punishments  had  no  limit. 
It  is  related,  and  the  fact  is  not  open  to  doubt,  that  during 
the  time  of  which  I  am  speaking  there  were  once  found  in  the 
waters  of  Boma  the  corpses  of  thirty  blacks  attached  to  one 
chain.  The  chain  bore  the  name  of  "Olivares,"  but  it  was 
alleged,  and  probably  with  good  reason,  that  the  perpetrator 
was  not  Olivares,  that  the  chain  had  been  stolen  from  him. 
The  name  of  the  person  really  guilty  of  this  horrible  crime 
was  mentioned,  and  it  was  represented  as  the  consequence 
of  a  mutiny  by  the  staff  of  a  factory.  That  was  the  kind  of 
administration  to  which  the  blacks  were  subjected,  under  the 
eyes  of  Europe  it  may  be  said,  seeing  that  ships  of  war  had 
easy  access  to  Boma. 

Higher  up,  in  the  present  district  of  the  Cataracts,  the 
population  was  in  part  subject  to  the  Negro  king  of  San  Sal- 
vador. Read  the  book  of  Mr.  Bentley,  an  educated  English 
missionary,  who  has  been  in  Africa  thirty  years,  and  who 
saw  the  administration  under  which  the  natives  lived  when 
he  arrived  there.  He  expresses  his  admiration  for  the  enor- 
mous progress  which  has  been  made,  so  far  as  the  protection 
of  the  blacks  goes,  since  they  came  under  the  government  of 
the  Congo  State.  Why  are  not  the  statements  of  this  ster- 
ling man,  so  eminently  competent  in  all  questions  relating  to 
the  protection  of  the  blacks,  quoted?     .     .     . 

But  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  the  system 
adopted  by  the  Government  of  the  Independent  State  is  more 
equitable  than  any  other  system  whatever,  and  imposes  upon 
the  natives  a  minimum  of  taxes.  Each  man's  tribute  is  very 
small.  In  certain  regions  where  the  rubber  is  abundant,  he 
can  gather  in  one  day  the  tax  that  is  required  of  him  for  a 
month.     Besides  the  work  thus  performed  by  the  natives 


Summary,  Retrospect,  and  Prophecy     481 

being  remunerated,  their  households  find  themselves  in  pos- 
session of  some  supplementary  resources.  The  desire  to  add 
to  their  well-being  increases  each  day. 

Let  us  hope  that  the  policy  established  by  the  Congo  State 
in  this  respect  will  not  be  changed.  The  strong  black  races 
which  cover  many  parts  of  its  territory  will  acquire  the  habit 
of  regular  work,  in  place  of  their  primitive  idleness.  There 
will  result  from  this  what  has  resulted  in  countries  long 
civilised.  The  countries  in  which  people  know  how  to  work 
are  strong,  and  in  the  van  of  progress.  Such  a  future  seems 
to  me  reserved  for  the  Congo  State  if  it  perseveres  in  its 
present  course. 

The  story  of  the  Congo  Free  State  offers  great 
opportunity  for  speculation  and  for  prophecy.  Tak- 
ing a  broad  view  of  the  opinion  prevalent  in  Europe 
and  the  United  States,  the  conclusion  that  Great 
Britain  seeks  to  acquire  important  territory  in  Cen- 
tral Africa  is  inevitable.  This  theory  of  the  anti- 
Congo  campaign  is  strenuously  denied  by  all  un- 
official persons  engaged  in  that  campaign.  And 
yet  there  are  unmistakable  signs  that  of  the  many 
theories  so  industriously  exploited,  British  acquisi- 
tion of  the  keystone  of  African  territorial  possession 
seems  to  be  most  in  line  with  the  history  of  British 
methods  of  expansion.  The  Free  State  is  one -third 
the  size  of  the  United  States.  It  lies  squarely 
across  the  heart  of  Africa,  with  an  outlet  to  the  sea 
on  the  West  Coast  which  brings  it  many  miles  and 
many  days  nearer  European  markets.  It  separates 
the  British  African  Empire, — the  Soudan  and  the  Nile 
country  adjoining  the  Free  State  on  the  north,  from 
the  Cape  and  the  Boer  war  territorial  acquisitions  on 
the  south.     It  is  as  if  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  owned 


4^2         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

by  a  small  country,  say  Portugal,  divided  the  United 
States.  One  might  dwell  long  and  interestingly 
upon  the  political  possibilities  of  such  a  rich  country 
and  its  great  waterways  separating  the  energies  of 
the  east  and  the  west  in  our  country's  social,  politi- 
cal, and  strategic  solidarity.  The  British  and  the 
Germans  appreciate  the  vast  possibilities  of  the 
great  African  Continent.  While  the  former  expands 
its  territory  by  costly  wars,  the  latter,  by  adapting 
its  methods  to  suit  the  native  populations,  encom- 
passes the  African  market.  While  the  former  per- 
sists in  imposing  its  ancient,  crude,  and  ineffectual 
methods  of  colonial  development,  the  latter,  more 
modern,  more  direct,  more  flexible,  is  gaining  trade 
and  influence  which  might  belong  to  intelligent 
British  rule.  The  palsied  arm  and  the  obsolete 
method  of  regeneration,  prevalent  in  the  territories 
devastated  by  the  Boer  war,  illustrate  the  incom- 
petency of  the  present  generation  of  British  colo- 
nisers. Their  failures  are  multiplying.  It  is  the 
old  story  of  worship  of  the  Past,  confusion  in  the 
Present,  misconception  of  the  Future. 

The  growth  of  the  Congo  Free  State  has  from  the 
first  been  skilfully  directed  by  clever  men  of  thought 
and  action.  Now  that  the  transformation  is  com- 
plete, and  what  but  three  short  decades  ago  was  the 
very  heart  of  savagery  has  become  a  valuable  com- 
mercial and  political  asset,  the  forcible  ejectment 
from  the  African  Continent  of  the  authors  of  all  this 
good  is  openl}'-  discussed !  Such  is  the  reward  which 
it  is  proposed  should  be  meted  out  to  the  gallant, 
self-sacrificing  little  nation  which  has  replaced  the 


m 


Summary,  Retrospect,  and  Prophecy     483 

horrors  of  barbarism  by  the  blessings  of  civilisation, 
and  incidentally  discovered  vast  material  wealth. 
After  disposing  of  the  Belgian  African  possession, 
that  international  x^igmy,  Portugal,  occupying  Dela- 
goa  Bay  to  the  obvious  chagrin  of  Britain,  will  be 
served  with  the  long-expected  writ  of  ejectment. 
These  little  fellows  in  Africa  will  have  but  one  choice 
of  leaving — by  the  door  or  by  the  window.  Will  the 
world  tolerate  such  iniquity? — an  iniquity  of  the 
baser  sort,  veiled  with  specious  pretence.  Much 
depends  upon  the  attitude  of  the  American  people — 
youngest  of  the  great  nations,  herself  too  recently 
emerged  from  the  trials  and  tribulations  which  beset 
every  newly  created  State  not  to  discriminate  be- 
tween greed  and  hypocritical  pretence  on  the  one 
hand  and  conscientious  well-doing  on  the  other. 


APPENDIX 


485 


APPENDIX 
TREATY  OF  VIVI 

M.  August  Sparhawk,  agent  of  the  International  Expedition  of  the 
Upper  Congo,  acting  in  the  name  and  for  the  account  of  the  Comite 
d'Etudes,  of  the  Lower  Congo,  and  Vivi  Mavungu,  Vivi  Mku,  Ngusu 
Mpanda,  Benzane  Congo,  Kapita,  have  come  together  the  13th  of 
June,  1880,  at  the  station  Vivi,  in  order  to  discuss  and  to  decide  upon 
ce'rtain  measures  of  common  interest. 

After  full  examination  they  have  arrived  at  the  dispositions  and 
engagements  which  are  embodied  in  the  present  treaty,  to  wit: 

Article  I. — The  aforesaid  chiefs  of  the  district  of  Vivi  recognise 
that  it  is  highly  desirable  that  the  Comite  d' Etudes  oi  the  Congo  should 
create  and  develop  in  their  states  establishments  calculated  to  foster 
commerce  and  trade,  and  to  assure  to  the  country  and  its  inhabitants 
the  advantages  which  are  the  consequence  thereof. 

With  this  object  they  cede  and  abandon,  in  full  property,  to  the 
Comite  d' Etudes  the  territory  comprised  within  the  following  limits: 
To  the  west  and  north  and  east  the  left  banks  of  the  river  Lulu,  and 
to  the  south  the  districts  of  Kolu  and  Congo. 

Art.  II. — The  chiefs  of  the  district  of  Vivi  solemnly  declare  that 
these  territories  form  an  integral  part  of  their  states,  and  that  they  are 
able  freely  to  dispose  of  them. 

Art.  III. — The  cession  of  the  territories  specified  in  the  last  paragraph 
of  Article  I  is  consented  to  in  consideration  of  a  present  represented  by 
the  following  articles  and  goods  to  each  one:  A  uniform  coat,  a  cap, 
a  coral  necklace,  a  knife;  and  a  monthly  gift  to  Vivi  Mavungu  of  two 
pieces  of  cloth ;  to  Vivi  Mku  of  one  piece  of  cloth ;  to  Ngusu  Mpanda, 
one  piece  of  cloth;  to  Benzane  Congo,  one  piece  of  cloth;  to  Kapita, 
one  piece  of  cloth. 

Art.  IV. — The  cession  of  the  territory  includes  the  abandonment  by 
them  and  the  transfer  to  the  Comite  d'Eiudes  of  all  sovereign  rights. 

Art.  V. — The  Com.ite  d' Etudes  engages  itself  e-xpressly  to  leave  to  the 
natives  the  free  enjoyment  of  the  lands  which  they  now  cultivate  to 
supply  their  needs.  It  promises  to  protect  them  and  to  defend  their 
persons  and  their  property  against  aggressions  and  encroachments, 

487 


488         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

from  whatsoever  side,  which  shall  attack  their  individual  liberty  or 
shall  seek  to  take  away  from  them  the  fruit  of  their  labours. 

Art.  VI. — The  chiefs  of  the  district  of  Vivi  grant,  besides,  to  the 
Comite  d' Etudes — 

(i)  The  cession  of  all  the  routes  of  communication  now  open 
or  to  be  opened  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  their  states.  If  the 
Comite  deems  it  proper  it  shall  have  the  right  to  establish  and  levy 
for  its  own  profit  tolls  upon  said  routes,  to  defray  the  expenses  incurred 
in  their  construction.  The  routes  thus  opened  shall  embrace,  besides 
the  routes  properly  so-called,  a  breadth  of  twenty  metres  right  and 
left  therefrom.  This  breadth  constitutes  part  of  the  cession,  and  shall 
be,  like  the  route  itself,  the  property  of  the  Comite  d'Etudes. 

(2)  The  right  of  trading  freely  with  the  natives  who  form  part  of 
their  states. 

(3)  The  right  of  cultivating  unoccupied  lands;  to  open  up  the  for- 
ests; to  cut  trees;  to  gather  india  rubber,  copal,  wax,  honey,  and,  gen- 
erally, all  the  natural  productions  which  are  found  there ;  to  fish  in  the 
rivers  and  streams  and  water-courses,  and  to  work  the  mines. 

It  is  understood  that  the  Comite  can  exercise  the  several  rights  men- 
tioned in  the  third  paragraph  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the 
states  of  the  chiefs  of  Vivi. 

Art.  VII. — The  chiefs  of  the  district  of  Vivi  undertake  to  unite 
their  forces  to  those  of  the  Com,ite  to  repel  attacks  which  may  be  made 
by  intruders,  no  matter  of  what  colour. 

The  chiefs,  not  knowing  how  to  sign,  have  put  their  marks,  in  the 
presence  of   the  witnesses  hereafter  designated  and  who  have  signed. 
[Seal.]  Aug.  Sparhawk. 

[Seal.]  John  Kickbright. 

[Seal.]  Frank  Mahoney. 

[Seal.]  Geoffrey. 

TREATY  OF  MANYANGA 

During  the  palabre  held  at  Manyanga  the  12th  of  August,  1882,  it 
is  agreed  between  the  members  hereinafter  designated  of  the  Expedi- 
tion of  the  Upper  Congo : 

Dr.  Edward  Pechuel  Loesche,  chief  of  the  Expedition; 

Capt.  Edmund  Hanssens,  chief  of  the  division  of  Leopold-Manyanga ; 

Lieut.  Arthur  Niles,  chief  of  Manyanga; 

First  Lieut.  Orban,  deputy  chief  of  Manyanga; 

Edward  Ceris,  assistant  of  Pechuel,  representing  the  Comite  of  the 
Upper  Congo; 
and  the  chiefs  hereafter  named  of  Manyanga — 

Makito,  of  Kintamba; 

Nkosi,  of  Kintamba; 


Appendix  489 

Filankuni,  of  Kintamba; 

Maluka,  of  Kintamba; 

Kuakala,  of  Kintamba; 

Mankatula,  of  Kintamba- Kimbiiku; 

Luamba,  of  Kintamba; 

In  the  name  of  their  subjects. 

Article  I. — Hereafter  the  territory  of  Manyanga,  heretofore  be- 
longing to  the  chiefs  before  cited,  situated  north  and  south  of  the  river, 
and  bounded  on  the  west  by  the  stream  Luseto,  and  by  the  stream 
Msua  Mungua  on  the  east,  shall  be  the  sole  property  of  the  Comite 
d'Eiudes  of  the  Upper  Congo. 

Art.  II. — The  chiefs  and  their  subjects,  their  villages,  their  planta- 
tions, their  domestic  animals,  and  fishing  apparatus  shall  be  placed 
under  the  protection  of  the  Expedition. 

Art.  III. — In  all  political  affairs  of -the  populations  of  the  district 
protected  and  acquired,  their  quarrels,  differences,  elections  of  chiefs, 
shall  be  submitted  to  the  decision  of  the  member  of  the  Expedition 
who  shall  be  present  at  the  station. 

If  the  people  of  Manyanga  shall  be  attacked  by  neighbouring  tribes, 
the  Expedition  shall  defend  their  women  and  children  and  their  pro- 
perty by  all  the  means  in  their  power.  If  the  Expedition  shall  be 
attacked  by  another  tribe,  the  men  shall  be  bound  to  defend  the 
station. 

Art.  IV. — In  consequence  of  the  rights  acquired  and  protection 
afforded,  no  stranger  whatsoever  can  build  or  open  a  road  or  carry 
on  commerce  in  the  territory  of  Manyanga. 

Art.  V. — At  the  request  of  the  chief  of  the  station,  the  chief  of  the 
district  shall  put  at  his  disposition  the  necessary  number  of  labourers, 
men  or  women,  for  the  work  of  the  station  and  the  service  of  the 
caravans. 

Art.  VI. — Besides  the  sum  stipulated,  which  has  been  remitted  in 
goods  to  the  assembled  chiefs  in  payment  for  their  territories,  and  for 
which  they  have  given  a  receipt,  the  chiefs  shall  receive  monthly 
presents  on  condition  that  they  remain  true  friends  and  voluntarily 
perform  the  services  asked  of  them. 

Art.  VII. — The  first  chief  of  Manyanga,  Makito,  residing  at  Kin- 
tamba, receives  the  flag  of  the  Expedition,  which  he  will  raise  in  his 
village  in  sign  of  the  protection  exercised  by  the  Expedition. 

[Here  follow  the  crosses  and  signatures.] 

TREATY  OF  LEOPOLDVILLE 

29th  of  April,  1883. 
We,  the  undersigned,  chiefs  of  the  district  of  N'Kamo,  of  Kuiswangi, 
of  Kimpe,  and  of  all  the  districts  extending  from  the  river  Congo  to 


490         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Leopoldville  and  to  Ntamo,  up  to  the  river  Lutess  and  the  mountains  of 
Sama  Sankori,  have  resolved  to  put  ourselves,  as  well  as  our  heirs  and 
descendants,  under  the  protection  and  patronage  of  the  Comite  d' Etudes 
of  the  Upper  Congo,  and  to  give  power  to  its  representative  at  Miamo 
to  regulate  all  disputes  and  conflicts  that  may  arise  between  us  and 
foreigners  of  whatsoever  colour,  residing  out  of  the  district  or  territory 
of  N'Kamo,  in  order  to  prevent  strangers,  animated  by  wicked  inten- 
tions or  ignorant  of  our  customs,  from  exciting  embarrassments  or 
endangering  the  peace  and  security  and  independence  which  we  now 
enjoy. 

By  the  present  act  we  also  resolve  to  adopt  the  flag  of  the  Comite 
d'Etudes  of  the  Upper  Congo,  as  a  sign  for  each  and  all  of  us  that  we 
are  under  its  sole  protection. 

We  also  solemnly  and  truly  declare  that  this  is  the  only  contract  we 
have  ever  made,  and  that  we  .will  never  make  any  contract  with  any 
European  or  African  without  the  concurrence  and  agreement  of  the 
Comite  d'Etudes  of  the  Upper  Congo. 

To  the  above  resolution  we  freely  put  our  marks. 

Ngaliema,  his  X  mark. 

Makari,  his  X  mark. 

NuMBi,  his  X  mark. 

Manwale,  his  X  mark. 

Nyasko,  his  X  mark. 

TREATY  WITH  THE  KING  OF  NIADI 
STEPHANIEVILLE 

Between,  on  the  one  side.  Captain  John  Grant  Elliott,  commissioner 
and  representative  of  the  Comite  d'Etudes  of  the  Upper  Congo, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  M'Wuln  M'Boomga,  King  of  Niadi,  in 
his  own  name,  and  in  that  of  his  heirs  and  successors,  the  following 
contract  has  been  made  and  signed  in  the  presence  of  the  wit- 
nesses whose  signatures  are  below  given: 

Article  I. — The  party  first  named  engages  himself  to  make  to  the 
second  party  named  above  an  immediate  payment  of  60  yards  of  save- 
list,  20  pieces  of  superior  stuffs,  8  pieces  of  ratteen  stuff,  and  a  keg  of 
powder.  He,  moreover,  engages  to  make  to  the  above-named  party 
of  the  second  part,  his  heirs  and  successors,  a  m.onthly  payment,  which 
shall  commence  in  four  months,  with  arrears  from  the  date  of  this  con- 
tract, of  four  pieces  of  stuffs,  and  to  continue  always  this  payment,  if, 
in  compensation  therefor,  the  party  of  the  second  part,  in  his  name 
and  in  that  of  his  heirs  and  successors,  makes  an  absolute  and  imme- 
diate sale  of  a  certain  portion  of  territory  sketched  further  on,  de- 


Appendix  49  ^ 

scribed  in  Art.  II.,  the  territory  selected  by  the  first-named  party,  and 
over  which  the  flag  of  the  Comite  d' Etudes  of  the  Upper  Congo,  that  is 
to  say,  a  blue  flag  with  a  yellow  star  in  the  centre,  has  been  raised. 

Art.  II. — The  country  ceded  by  the  abov^e-named  article  is  de- 
scribed below,  and  accepted  by  the  contracting  parties.  Captain  John 
Grant  Elliott  and  the  King. 

1.  Six  miles  towards  the  west,  from  the  junction  of  the  Niadi  and 
the  Ludema,  and  following  the  banks  of  the  Niadi  (Niari). 

2.  Ten  miles  from  the  same  confluence,  towards  the  south,  and 
following  the  banks  of  the  Ludema. 

3.  Ten  miles  towards  the  east,  from  the  confluence  above  named, 
and  following  the  course  of  the  Niadi  (Niari). 

4.  Ten  miles  towards  the  south,  from  the  same  confluence,  and 
following  the  Ludema. 

5.  Ten  miles  to  the  north  of  the  Niadi  (Niari),  on  each  side  from 

that  point  of  the  Niadi  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Ludema,  running 

back  five  miles  towards  the  north. 

Grant  Elliott, 

wuln  m'boomga. 
Witnesses : 

Von  Shaumann, 

Legat, 

Destrain. 

Other  treaties,  districts  ceded,  and  stations  created  by  the  In- 
ternational Association  of  the  Congo,  and  which  form  the 
chief  places  of  the  states  possessed  by  this  Association  on 
the  Congo  and  on  the  Niadi  Kwilu  in  the  Year  1883. 

Stations:  Vivi,  Isanghila,  Manyanga,  Lutete,  Leopoldvillc,  Msuata, 
Bolobo,  Rudolfstadt,  Baudoinville,  Franktown,  Stanley  Niadi,  Step- 
hanieville,  Anvers,  Gideemba,  Lukolela,  Equateur,  Philippe ville,  Bu- 
langungu,  Mboka,  Mkula,  Grantville,  Massabe. 

Treaties  and  Districts  ceded:  Vivi,  Yellala,  Sala  Kidougo,  Gan- 
ghila,  Sadika  Banzi,  Ingha,  N'Sanda,  Kionzo,  N'Bambi  M'bongo, 
Talaballa,  Issanghila,  Ndambi  M'bongo,  M'Kelo,  Fua  na  Sondy, 
Konimovo  M 'Bongo,  Yanga,  Kamsalou,  M'binda,  Sakali  Boadi, 
Tchouma  Ranga,  Tombukile,  Ngoma,  N'Zadi,  Tchincala,  Banza 
ngombi,  Manyanga,  Bandanga,  Banza,  M'bou,  Sello,  Loufountchou, 
Kimbanda,  Ngombi,  Leopoldvillc,  Kimpoko,  Kinshassa,  Kintambou, 
Souvoulou,  M'bala,  Woutimi  (south),  Woutimi  (north),  Msuata, 
Bolobo,  Matchibouga,  Tchissanga,  Kitabi,  Zientu,  Mongo,  Franktown, 
Goudou,  Ganda,  Fouindoukifout,  Makouba  Banga.  Sitambe,  Bieba, 
Moyby,  Matalila,  N'Zombo,  Ganda  Kobombo,  Mabuka,  Chinnifor, 
Mudenda,  Nyangc,  Lubu,  Zoa,  N'Gewlla  Chunikonbo,  M'Gwella, 
Sangha,  Charli,  Mikasse,  Moulangas,  Mackanga,  Ludema,  Ungoonga, 
Buconzo,  Matenda,  Tanga  Dibiconga,  Licarnga,  Bumianga,  Chibanda 
N'Kuni,  Kingi,  Anversland,  Buda,  Towha,  Gideemba,  Sushwangi. 


492  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

March  26,  1884. — Ordered  to  be  printed 

Mr.  Morgan,  from  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  submitted  the 

following 

REPORT 

(To  accompany  S.  Res.  68  and  Mis.  Doc.  59) 

The  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  to  whom  were  referred  Senate 
Mis.  Doc.  No.  59  and  Senate  Joint  Resolution  68,  relating  to  the  occu- 
pation of  the  Congo  Country,  in  Africa,  have  had  the  same  under  con- 
sideration, and  report  a  substitute  for  the  same,  and  recommend  its 
passage. 

The  President,  in  his  annual  message  to  this  Congress,  expresses  the 
sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  on  the  subject  of  our 
future  relations  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley  of  the  Congo,  in 
Africa. 

Our  attitude  towards  that  country  is  exceptional,  and  otu"  interest  in 
its  people  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  more  than  one-tenth  of 
our  population  is  descended  from  the  negro  races  in  Africa. 

The  people  of  the  United  States,  with  but  little  assistance  from  the 
Government,  have  established  a  free  republic  in  Liberia,  with  a  con- 
stitution modelled  after  our  own,  and  under  the  control  of  the  negro 
race.  Its  area  is  14,300  square  miles;  its  population  is  about  1,200,000 
souls;  its  commerce  is  valuable;  its  government  is  successful,  and  its 
people  are  prosperous. 

The  necessity  for  a  negro  colony  in  Liberia  was  suggested  by  the 
fact  that  slaves  found  in  vessels  captured  for  violations  of  the  slave- 
trade  laws  and  treaties  were  required  to  be  returned  to  Africa  when 
that  was  practicable,  and  it  was  impossible,  and  it  would  have  been 
useless  and  cruel,  to  send  them  back  to  the  localities  where  they  were 
first  enslaved.  Humanity  prompted  certain  private  citizens  of  the 
United  States  to  organise  the  American  Colonisation  Society  in  aid  of 
the  return  of  captured  slaves  to  Africa  and  to  find  a  congenial  asylum 
and  home  for  negroes  who  were  emancipated  in  the  United  States. 

Henry  Clay  was,  for  many  years,  president  of  this  association,  and 
assisted  it  with  the  influence  of  his  great  name  and  broad  philanthropy. 

The  success  of  the  Liberian  colony  has  demonstrated  the  usefulness 
of  that  system  of  dealing  with  a  social  question  which  is,  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  of  the  highest  importance.  It  has  also  estab- 
lished a  recognised  precedent  in  favour  of  the  right  of  untitled  indi- 
viduals to  found  states  in  the  interests  of  civilisation  in  barbarous 
countries,  through  the  consent  of  the  local  authorities,  and  it  has  given 


Appendix  493 

confidence  to  those  who  look  to  the  justice  of  the  nations  for  a  restora- 
tion of  the  emancipated  Africans  to  their  own  country,  if  they  choose 
to  return  to  it. 

This  great  duty  has,  so  far,  been  left  entirely  to  the  efforts  of  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  and  it  has  been  supported  almost  exclusively  by 
their  personal  contributions.  The  governments  of  the  world  have 
been  slow  even  to  recognise  the  state  thus  founded  by  the  courage  and 
means  of  private  citizens,  but  it  is  now  firmly  established  in  the  family 
of  nations  and  is  everywhere  recognised  as  a  free  and  independent 
nation. 

This  pleasing  history  of  progress,  attended  with  peace  and  pro- 
sperity in  Liberia,  has  given  rise  to  a  feeling  of  earnest  interest  amongst 
the  people  of  the  United  States  in  the  questions  which  arise  from  the 
recent  discovery  by  their  countryman,  H.  M.  Stanley,  of  the  great 
river  which  drains  equatorial  Africa.  They  rejoice  in  the  revelation 
that  this  natural  highway  affords  navigation  for  steamers  extending 
more  than  half  the  distance  across  the  continent,  and  opens  to  civilisa- 
tion the  valley  of  the  Congo,  with  its  900,000  square  miles  of  fertile 
territory  and  its  50,000,000  of  people,  who  are  soon  to  become  most  use- 
ful factors  in  the  increase  of  the  productions  of  the  earth  and  in  swell- 
ing the  volume  of  commerce. 

The  movements  of  the  International  African  Association  which, 
with  a  statement  of  its  purposes,  are  referred  to  in  the  letter  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  appended  to  this  report,  are  in  the  direction  of  the 
civilisation  of  the  negro  population  of  Africa,  by  opening  up  their 
country  to  free  commercial  relations  with  foreign  countries. 

As  a  necessary  incident  of  this  praiseworthy  work,  which  is  intended, 
in  the  broadest  sense,  for  the  equal  advantage  of  all  foreign  nations 
seeking  trade  and  commerce  in  the  Congo  country,  the  African  Inter- 
national Association  has  acquired,  by  purchase  from  the  native  chiefs, 
the  right  of  occupancy  of  several  places  for  their  stations  and  depots. 
The  property  so  acquired  is  claimed  only  for  the  association,  which  is 
composed  of  persons  from  various  countries,  and  it  could  not,  there- 
fore, be  placed  under  the  shelter  of  ajny  single  foreign  flag. 

From  the  time  when  the  people  of  Christian  countries  began  to  ex- 
port slaves  from  Africa,  the  custom  grew  up  of  locating  "barracoons" 
or  slave  depots  along  the  African  coasts  and  rivers,  and  they  were  each 
placed  under  the  shelter  of  the  flag  of  the  country  to  which  the  slave 
merchants  belonged.  In  this  way  certain  settlements  were  made 
along  the  shores  of  the  Congo  River  as  far  inland  as  Yellalla  Falls,  and 
were  claimed  and  held  under  the  protection  of  the  respecti\'e  flags  of 
the  countries  from  which  these  traders  came. 

This  was,  generally,  a  mere  personal  ad\'enture,  and  had  no  relation 
to  any  governmental  authority  of  those  covintries  over  the  barracoons. 
When  this  traffic  took  the  shape  of  legitimate  commerce  with  the 


494  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

natives,  these  places  were  called  factories,  and  they  gradually  assumed 
certain  powers  of  self-government  as  their  necessities  required.  Each 
factory  was  independent  of  the  control  of  all  others,  and  established 
for  itself  such  regulations,  having  really  the  effect  of  laws,  as  were 
necessary  to  protect  life  and  property.  To  this  day  those  settlements 
are  held  in  the  same  way,  and  while  the  governments,  whose  flags  are 
thus  displayed  over  them,  claim  no  sovereignty  there,  they  do  not 
recognise  the  rights  of  their  people  at  such  places  as  entitling  them  to 
protection,  and  they  require  their  flags  to  be  respected. 

In  some  instances  the  native  chiefs  sold  the  lands  on  which  the  fac- 
tories were  situated,  with  the  privileges  of  trade  to  foreign  companies, 
and  these  in  turn  sold  them  to  persons  of  still  other  nationalities. 

The  African  International  Association  established  its  stations,  and 
opened  roads  leading  from  one  to  another  around  the  falls  of  the  Congo 
in  the  same  way  that  the  older  factories  had  been  established,  with 
the  additional  fact  in  their  favour  that  their  settlements  were  always 
preceded  by  an  open  agreement  with  the  local  government  in  the  form 
of  a  treaty.  A  flag  was  as  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  their  settle- 
ment and  as  an  indication  of  their  right  and  to  designate  the  places 
under  their  control,  as  it  was  to  the  slave-traders,  whose  only  advan- 
tage is  that  they  have  been  in  possession  a  long  time  for  the  purposes 
of  nefarious  traffic  in  slaves,  while  the  Association  has  been  in  posses- 
sion only  a  short  time  for  the  benign  purposes  of  introducing  civilisa- 
tion into  that  country. 

Having  no  foreign  flag  that  they  could  justly  claim,  they  adopted  a 
flag  and  displayed  it,  a  golden  star  in  a  field  of  blue,  the  symbol  of  hope 
to  a  strong  but  ignorant  people,  and  of  prosperity  through  peace.  The 
native  people  instinctively  regarded  that  as  the  first  banner  they 
had  seen  that  promised  them  goodwill  and  security,  and  they  readily 
yielded  to  it  their  confidence. 

There  is  no  historical  record  to  be  found  of  such  a  rapid  and  general 
assembling  of  separate  and  independent  rulers  under  a  banner  that 
was  raised  by  the  hands  of  strangers,  as  that  which  took  place  amongst 
the  chiefs  and  people  of  the  Free  States  of  the  Congo.  Within  five 
years  from  the  time  the  banner  of  this  Association  was  first  displayed 
on  the  Congo,  its  agents  have  made  nearly  one  hundred  treaties  with 
the  chiefs  of  the  different  tribes  in  the  Congo  countrjr.  In  each  of 
these  treaties  there  are  valuable  commercial  agreements  and  regula- 
tions touching  law  and  order  and  certain  delegations  of  limited  powers, 
all  of  which  are  intended  for  the  better  government  of  the  country. 

The  powers  are  not  ceded  to  a  new  and  usiirping  sovereignty  seeking 
to  destroy  existing  governments,  but  are  delegated  to  a  common  agent 
for  the  common  welfare.  In  the  language  of  the  first  treaty,  concluded 
at  Vivi  June  13,  1880,  and  which  is  the  plan  after  which  nearly  one 
hundred  subsequent  treaties  have  been  modelled: 


Appendix  495 

"The  aforesaid  chiefs  of  the  district  of  Vivi  recognise  that  it  is 
highly  desirable  that  the  Comite  d' Etudes  of  the  Congo  should  create  and 
develop  in  their  states  establishments  calculated  to  foster  commerce 
and  trade,  and  to  assure  to  the  country  and  its  inhabitants  the  advan- 
tages which  are  the  consequence  thereof. 

"With  this  object  in  view  they  cede  and  abandon,  in  full  property 
(fee-simple)  to  the  Comite  d'Etudes,  the  territory  comprised  within  the 
following  limits,"  etc. 

A  copy  of  this  treaty  is  appended  to  the  report  of  the  committee. 

If  these  local  governments  had  the  right  to  make  these  concessions, 
so  much  sovereign  power  as  they  confer  upon  the  African  International 
Association  is  entitled  to  recognition  by  other  nations  as  justifying  its 
claim  to  existence  as  a  government  de  jure.  Or,  if  there  is  still  a  ques- 
tion as  to  its  sovereignty,  affecting  either  its  territorial  extent  or  the 
subjects  as  to  which  it  may  legislate,  there  is  still  enough  of  concert 
amongst  the  native  tribes,  in  placing  themselves  in  treaty  relations 
with  this  Association,  to  warrant  other  nations  in  recognising  its  exist- 
ence as  a  government  de  facto.  In  either  case,  it  is  our  duty  so  to 
recognise  it,  because  its  purposes,  as  avowed  in  those  treaties,  are 
peaceful,  and  commend  themselves  strongly  to  the  sympathies  of  our 
people. 

The  golden  star  of  the  banner  of  the  International  Association  re- 
presents hospitality  to  the  people  and  commerce  of  all  nations  in  the 
Free  States  of  the  Congo;  civilisation,  order,  peace,  and  security  to  the 
persons  and  property  of  those  who  visit  the  Congo  country,  as  well  as 
to  its  inhabitants;  and  if,  in  the  promotion  of  these  good  purposes,  it 
lawfully  represents  powers  ceded  or  delegated  to  the  Association  by 
the  local  governments  necessary  to  make  them  effectual,  it  does  not 
thereby  offend  against  humanity  nor  unlawfully  usurp  authority  in 
derogation  of  the  rights  of  any  nation  upon  the  earth. 

Powers  asserted  in  good  faith,  and  with  a  reasonable  show  of  ability 
to  maintain  them,  even  by  rebels,  within  a  state  that  denounces  their 
assertion  as  treasonable,  are  often  recognised  as  being  lawful,  as  well 
in  the  interests  of  humanity,  as  to  give  to  the  alleged  rebels  an  oppor- 
timity  to  make  good  their  pretensions  by  arms. 

The  history  of  our  recent  civil  war  discloses  the  recognition  of  the 
belligerent  rights  of  the  Confederate  States  by  all  nations,  including  the 
United  States,  which  wholly  denied  the  lawfulness  of  the  acts  of 
secession  which  led  to  hostilities  and  denounced  them  as  treasonable. 

If  the  flag  of  the  Confederate  States  could  protect  its  armed  citizens 
against  the  penalties  of  piracy  while  destroying  the  ships  and  com- 
merce of  the  United  States,  it  would  be  diflficult  to  state  a  reason  why 
the  flag  of  the  International  African  Association  should  not  protect 
its  ships  from  capture  and  condemnation  while  carrying  on  peaceful 
commerce  on  the  Congo.     It  would  be  still  more  difficult  for  any 


49^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Christian  nation  to  assign  a  reason  founded  in  the  principles  of  inter- 
national law  why  it  should  refuse  to  recognise  this  flag.  The  Congo 
River  has  been  for  centuries,  and  is  now,  the  common  resort  of  the 
ships  and  flags  of  all  countries,  and  it  requires  a  total  change  of  the 
political  conditions  in  that  country  to  destroy  this  right,  and  either  to 
declare  the  waters  and  shores  of  the  Congo  as  being  neutral  territory 
or  as  being  under  the  sovereignty  of  any  one  or  more  of  the  foreign 
nations. 

These  reasons,  and  others  which  appear  in  the  papers  appended  to 
this  report,  are  a  just  and  sufficient  foundation  for  the  declaration  by 
the  United  States  which  individualises  the  flag  of  the  African  Interna- 
tional Association  as  a  national  flag,  entitled  to  our  recognition  and 
respect. 

The  precedents  in  our  own  history  to  justify  our  recognition  of 
states  while  in  the  process  of  early  development  are  numerous  and 
conclusive.  They  are  cited  in  the  papers  appended  to  this  report,  and 
are  sustained  by  many  other  references  which  show  that  in  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa  civil  power,  exerted  by  commercial  associations,  and 
by  religious  orders,  and  by  propagandas  of  civilisation,  and  by  groups 
of  Hospitallers,  has  owned  large  war  fleets  and  raised  armies,  fought 
great  battles,  levied  taxes,  and  performed  every  function  of  govern- 
ment. They  did  all  this  without  claiming  to  possess  sovereign  power 
as  organised  nations ;  and  they  submitted  themselves  to  the  authority 
of  the  state  after  they  had  prepared  the  country  where  they  ruled  for 
that  final  act  of  establishment  of  sovereign  power,  and  then  they  ceased 
to  exist. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  further  in  order  to  find  a  justification  of  the 
action  suggested  in  the  message  of  the  President,  and  of  the  resolution 
which  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  recommend  as  a  proper 
means  of  carrying  into  effect  this  policy  concerning  the  Free  States  of 
the  Congo. 

It  is,  however,  proper  to  make  some  examination  of  the  alleged 
claim  of  Portugal  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  and 
of  the  riparian  country  as  far  into  the  interior  as  the  first  falls  of  Yellalla. 

Portugal's  pretensions  to  this  sovereignty  are  completely  refuted 
by  the  fact  that  it  has  not  been  heretofore  acknowledged  by  the  five 
great  powers  whose  flags  have  been  flying  for  more  than  a  century  in 
the  country  now  claimed  by  that  Government.  On  the  contrary, 
these  powers  have  constantly  refused  to  make  any  such  concession  on 
all  occasions  since  1786,  and  some  of  them  previous  to  that  time. 

The  claim  of  Portugal,  based  on  discovery  of  the  mouth  of  the  Congo 
by  Diego  Cam  in  1485,  and  by  his  having  erected  a  monument  on  the 
shore  to  testify  to  his  landing  there,  only  establishes  its  antiquity  and 
not  its  rightfulness  under  modern  interpretations  of  the  laws  of 
nations. 


Appendix  497 


If  the  laws  of  Christian  nations  give  any  effect  to  the  discovery  by 
the  subjects  of  a  Christian  power,  of  a  country  inhabited  even  by 
savages,  they  also  require  that  discovery  shall  be  followed  by  continu- 
ous subsequent  occupation.  If  such  occupation  ceases,  it  is  justly 
considered  as  being  abandoned,  since  the  only  foundation  of  reason  or 
of  justice  that  can  support  the  occupation  of  an  inhabited  country  by 
a  foreign  power  is,  that  it  is  better  that  the  savages  should  have  the 
advantages  of  Christian  instruction  and  laws,  than  that  they  should 
continue  in  darkness  to  rule  the  country  in  their  own  way.  If,  there- 
fore, the  Christian  ruler  should  cease  to  occupy  the  country,  it  must 
be  considered  that  he  abandons  his  duty,  and,  with  it,  the  sovereignty 
of  the  country. 

Portugal  did  not  exert  continuous  or  exclusive  authority  on  the 
Congo  for  any  great  while;  her  possessions  there,  as  well  as  those  of 
the  other  Christian  powers,  fluctuated  with  the  supply  of  slaves,  the 
capture  or  purchase  of  which  was  the  chief  inducement  to  these  settle- 
ments. They  all  followed  up  the  supply  of  slaves  from  the  interior  of 
Africa,  along  the  coast,  according  to  its  abundance,  as  the  fishermen 
visit  different  localities  in  search  of  better  fishing  grounds. 

In  1786,  disputes  having  arisen  between  France  and  Portugal,  as  to 
the  sovereignty  of  the  latter  over  the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  under  the 
mediation  of  the  King  of  Spain,  Portugal  conceded  the  point  that  her 
rights  in  that  country  were  not  exclusive.  Since  that  time  England 
has  repeatedly  denied,  in  the  most  formal  and  solemn  manner,  that 
Portugal  had  any  sovereignty  or  suzerainty  over  the  Congo  country. 
None  of  the  great  powers  claimed  such  sovereignty  for  themselves, 
nor  have  they  conceded  it  to  Portugal ;  their  occupancy  has  not  been 
such  as  implied  any  right  to  rule  the  country,  but  only  such  as  was 
necessary  to  carry  on  trade.  That  is  equally  free  to  all  nations.  In 
the  papers  appended  to  this' (report,  and  especially  in  the  valuable  tes- 
timony of  Earl  Mayo,  based  upon  his  personal  observations  in  the 
Congo  country  in  1882,  we  find  the  most  conclusive  proof  upon  all  the 
points  above  stated,  and  unquestionable  evidence  that  Portugal's 
northernmost  boundary  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  south  of  the 
Equator,  for  many  years  past,  has  been  the  river  Loge. 

The  attitude  of  Great  Britain  towards  the  pretensions  of  Portugal 
to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Lower  Congo  has  been  that  of  decided,  fre- 
quent, and  stern  denial,  accompanied  with  distinct  orders  to  her  fleets 
to  repel  any  advance  of  Portugal  to  assert  her  authority  north  of 
Ambriz.  This  record,  so  repeatedly  reaffirmed,  is  by  no  means  changed 
by  the  fact  that  Great  Britain  may  now  be  ready  to  admit  Portugal,  in 
alliance  with  her,  to  sovereign  rights  in  the  Lower  Congo.  Her  change 
of  policy  cannot  change  the  facts,  especially  when  Great  Britain  ob- 
tains from  Portugal  the  cession  of  Wydha  in  consideration  that  she 
will  acknowledge  the  rights  of  Portugal  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Lower 


49^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Congo.  Great  Britain  has  also  made  treaties  with  fifteen  tribes  in  the 
Lower  Congo  country,  paying  no  attention  to  Portugal's  claims  of 
sovereignty  there. 

In  like  manner  France  has  disregarded  these  pretensions,  and  has 
made  treaties  with  tribes  north  of  the  Congo.  De  Brazza,  an  enter- 
prising explorer,  went  into  that  region  of  Africa  as  an  agent  of  the 
African  International  Association,  and  also  as  an  agent  of  the  French 
Government,  and  was  supported  with  money  from  the  French  treasury. 
He  made  these  treaties  in  the  name  of  France,  and  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  has  ratified  them.  In  view  of  these  facts  it  can  scarcely  be 
denied  that  the  native  chiefs  have  the  right  to  make  treaties.  The 
able  and  exhaustive  statements  and  argtunents  of  Sir  Travers  Twiss, 
the  eminent  English  jurist,  and  of  Professor  Arntz,  the  no  less  distin- 
guished Belgian  publicist,  which  are  appended  to  this  report,  leave  no 
doubt  upon  the  question  of  the  legal  capacity  of  the  African  Interna- 
tional Association,  in  view  of  the  laws  of  nations,  to  accept  any  powers 
belonging  to  these  native  chiefs  and  governments  which  they  may 
choose  to  delegate  or  cede  to  them. 

The  practical  question  to  which  they  give  an  affirmative  answer, 
for  reasons  which  appear  to  be  indisputable,  is  this:  Can  independent 
chiefs  of  savage  tribes  cede  to  private  citizens  (persons)  the  whole  or 
part  of  their  states,  with  the  sovereign  rights  which  pertain  to  them, 
conformably  to  the  traditional  customs  of  the  country? 

The  doctrine  advanced  in  this  proposition,  and  so  well  sustained  by 
these  writers,  accords  with  that  held  by  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  that  the  occupants  of  a  country  at  the  time  of  its  discovery 
by  other  and  more  powerful  nations  have  the  right  to  make  the  treaties 
for  its  disposal,  and  that  private  persons,  when  associated  in  such 
country,  for  self -protection  or  self-government,  may  treat  with  the 
inhabitants  for  any  purpose  that  does  not  violate  the  laws  of  nations. 

The  following  incidents,  mentioned  in  Bancroft's  History  of  the 
United  States,  show  how  much  we  owe,  as  a  people,  to  the  early  recog- 
nition of  these  doctrines: 

"MASSACHUSETTS 

"One  day  in  March,  1621,  Samoset,  an  Indian,  who  had  learned  a 
little  English  of  the  fishermen  at  Penobscot,  entered  the  town,  and, 
passing  to  the  rendezvous,  exclaimed  in  English,  'Welcome,  English- 
men ! '  He  was  the  envoy  of  Massasoit  himself,  the  greatest  commander 
of  the  country,  sachem  of  the  tribe  possessing  the  land  north  of  Narra- 
gansett  Bay,  and  between  the  rivers  of  Providence  and  Taunton. 
After  some  little  negotiation,  in  which  an  Indian  who  had  been  carried 
to  England  acted  as  interpreter,  the  chieftain  came  in  person  to  visit 
the  Pilgrims.  With  their  wives  and  children  they  amounted  to  no 
more  than  fifty.     He  was  received  with  due  ceremonies,  and  a  treaty 


Appendix  499 

of  friendship  was  completed  in  few  and  unequivocal  terms.  Both 
parties  promised  to  abstain  from  mutual  injuries,  and  to  deliver  up 
offenders;  the  colonists  were  to  receive  assistance,  if  attacked;  to 
render  it,  if  Massasoit  should  be  attacked  unjustly.  The  treaty  in- 
cluded the  confederates  of  the  sachem ;  it  is  the  oldest  act  of  diplomacy 
recorded  in  New  England ;  it  was  concluded  in  a  day,  and  was  sacredly 
kept  for  more  than  half  a  century.  " — (Bancroft's  History  of  the  United 
States,  p.  2IO.) 

"The  men  of  Plymouth  exercised  self-government  without  the  sanc- 
tion of  a  royal  charter,  which  it  was  ever  impossible  for  them  to  ob- 
tain."— {Ibid.,  p.  213.) 

"The  attempt  to  acquire  the  land  on  Narragansett  Bay  was  less  de- 
serving of  success.  .  .  .  In  1 64 1  a  minority  of  the  inhabitants, 
wearied  with  harassing  disputes,  requested  the  interference  of  the 
magistrates  of  Massachusetts,  and  two  sachems  near  Providence  sur- 
rendered the  soil  to  the  jurisdiction  of  that  State." — {Ibid.,  p.  287.) 

"providence    plantations    and    RHODE    ISLAND 

"In  June  (1636)  the  law-giver  of  Rhode  Island  (Roger  Williams), 
with  five  companies,  embarked  on  the  stream;  a  frail  Indian  canoe 
contained  the  founder  of  an  independent  State  and  its  earliest  citizens. 
Tradition  has  marked  the  spring  of  water  near  which  they  landed. 
To  express  unbroken  confidence  in  the  mercies  of  God,  he  called  the 
place  Providence.  .  .  .  The  land  which  he  occupied  was  within 
the  territory  of  the  Narragansetts.  In  March,  1636,  an  Indian  deed 
from  Canonicus  and  Miantonomoh  made  him  the  undisputed  possessor 
of  an  extensive  domain ;  but  he  '  always  stood  for  liberty  and  equality 
both  in  land  and  government.'  The  soil  became  his  'own  as  truly  as 
any  man's  coat  upon  his  back';  and  he  'reserved  to  himself  not  one 
foot  of  land,  not  one  tittle  of  political  power,  more  than  he  granted  to 
servants  and  strangers. '  He  gave  away  his  lands  and  other  estates  to 
them  that  he  thought  most  in  want  until  he  gave  away  all." — {Ibid., 

P-  254.) 

"Before  the  month  (March,  1638)  was  at  an  end,  the  influence  of 
Roger  Williams  and  the  name  of  Henry  Vane  prevailed  with  Mianto- 
nomoh. the  chief  of  the  Narragansetts,  to  make  them  a  gift  of  the 
beautiful  island  of  Rhode  Island.  ...  A  patent  from  England 
was  necessary  for  their  security;  and  in  September  they  obtained  it 
through  the  now  powerful  Henry  Vane." — {Ibid.,  p.  263.) 

"CONNECTICUT 

"In  equal  independence  a  Puritan  colony  sprang  up  at  New  Haven, 
under  the  guidance  of  John  Darenport  as  its  pastor,  and  of  his  friend 
the  excellent  Theophilus  Eaton.     .     .     .      In  April,  1638,  the  colonists 


500  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

held  their  first  gathering  under  a  branching  oak.  ...  A  title  to 
lands  was  obtained  by  a  treaty  with  the  natives  whom  they  protected 
against  the  Mohawks." — {Ibid.,  p.  271.) 

"new    HAMPSHIRE 

"At  the  fall  of  the  leaf  in  1635,  a  band  of  twelve  families,  toiling 
through  thickets  of  ragged  bushes  and  clambering  over  crossed  trees, 
made  their  way  along  Indian  paths  to  the  green  meadows  of  Concord. 
A  tract  of  land  six  miles  square  was  purchased  for  the  planters  of  the 
squaw  sachem  and  a  chief,  to  whom,  according  to  Indian  laws  of  pro- 
perty, it  belonged." — {Ibid.,  p.  271.) 

"north    CAROLINA 

"In  1660  or  1661  New  England  men  had  found  their  way  into  the 
Cape  Fear  River,  had  purchased  of  the  Indian  chief  a  title  to  the  soil, 
and  had  planted  a  little  colony  of  herdsmen  far  to  the  south  of  any 
English  settlement  on  the  continent." — {Ibid.,  p.  409.) 

"It  is  known  that  in  1662  the  chief  of  a  tribe  of  Indians  granted  to 
George  Durant  the  neck  of  land  which  still  bears  his  name." — {Ibid., 
p.  410.) 

We  owe  it  as  a  duty  to  our  African  population  that  we  should  en- 
deavour to  secure  to  them  the  right  to  freely  return  to  their  fatherland, 
and  as  freely  to  agree  with  their  kindred  people  upon  any  concessions 
they  may  choose  to  make  to  them  as  individuals  or  as  associated  colo- 
nists, looking  to  their  re-establishment  in  their  own  country.  The 
deportation  of  their  ancestors  from  Africa  in  slavery  was  contrary  to 
the  now  accepted  canons  of  the  laws  of  nations,  and  now  they  may 
return  under  those  laws  to  their  natural  inheritance.  In  exercising 
this  right  they  should  not  be  obstructed  by  a  power  that  had  more  to 
do  with  their  enslavement  and  expulsion,  in  bondage,  from  their  own 
country  than  any  other,  and  that  never  held  a  claim  upon  that  country 
for  any  purpose  of  advantage  to  the  people  there,  but  held  it  chiefly, 
if  not  entirely,  for  the  mere  purpose  of  enslaving  them. 

It  is  stated,  with  the  support  of  strong  testimony,  that  Portugal  is 
still  protecting  the  slave  trade  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  under  a  thin 
guise  of  the  voluntary  emigration  of  the  negroes  to  other  countries. 

Extracts  appended  to  this  report,  from  Earl  Mayo's  De  Rebus  Af- 
ricanus,  in  which  he  gives  an  account  of  his  personal  examination, 
in  1882,  of  the  Portuguese  trading  posts,  supported  by  the  report  of 
M.  du  Verge,  our  United  States  consul  at  St.  Paul  de  Loando,  show  that 
slavery  still  exists  in  the  country  claimed  by  Portugal  on  the  Congo, 
and  is  fostered  there  and  at  St.  Paul  de  Loando  by  the  Portuguese 
residents. 

This  violation  of  the  slave-trade  treaties  renders  the  occupancy  by 


Appendix  501 


Portugal  of  any  African  territory  at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  dangerous 
to  all  the  tribes  of  the  interior,  and  cannot  be  sanctioned  by  the  treaty 
powers  while  it  is  attended  with  such  incidents  without  an  abandon- 
ment of  all  treaty  obligations  and  duties  relating  to  the  slave  trade. 

The  importance  of  the  Congo  River  to  the  continent  of  Africa  as  a 
channel  through  which  civilisation  and  all  its  attendant  advantages 
will  be  introduced  into  a  region  inhabited  by  50,000,000  of  people  can- 
not be  too  highly  estimated. 

After  Stanley  had  made  his  journey  of  exploration  of  nearly  7000 
miles  across  the  continent  of  Africa,  and  had  revealed  to  the  world  the 
extent  and  importance  of  this  great  river  Congo,  all  the  great  commer- 
cial nations  at  once  began  to  look  earnestly  in  that  direction  for  a  new 
and  most  inviting  field  of  commerce,  and  with  the  high  and  noble 
purpose  of  opening  it  freely  to  the  equal  enjoyment  of  all  nations  alike. 

The  merchants  of  Europe  and  America  insist  upon  this  equal  and 
universal  right  of  free  trade  with  that  country,  and  their  Chambers  of 
Commerce  have  earnestly  pressed  upon  their  respective  Governments 
the  duty  and  necessity  of  such  international  agreements  as  would 
secure  these  blessings  to  the  people  of  Africa  and  of  the  entire  com- 
mercial world. 

The  enlightened  King  of  the  Belgians  has  supplied  the  means  from 
his  private  purse  to  inaugurate  civilisation  in  the  Congo  country  under 
the  authority  of  its  native  rulers.  He  has  no  thought  of  extending  the 
power  of  his  realm  over  that  country,  but  has  engaged  in  this  move- 
ment only  as  any  citizen  might. 

Its  progress  is  thus  further  described  by  an  agent  of  the  African 
International  Association  in  a  letter  within  the  past  month: 

"Brussels,  February  25. 

"Our  territories  are  extending  now  on  a  very  rich  coast  south  and 
north  of  the  mouths  of  the  Quillou,  a  distance  of  more  than  350  kilo- 
metres (about  300  miles). 

"That  coast  has  given  itself  to  us  by  unanimous  acclamation  of  the 
natives,  who  hoisted  our  flag  and  refused  our  presents. 

"Our  territories  are  going  to  be  divided  into  three  provinces:  (i) 
Coast  and  Quillou  Madi;  (2)  Lower  Congo,  Vivi,  Stanley  Pool;  (3) 
Upper  Congo. 

"Our  governmental  organisations  will  then  be  complete:  in  Africa, 
a  head  chief  and  governors  administering  the  country  and  justice:  in 
Europe,  the  association  providing  for  the  financial  wants  of  the  new 
State,  and  representing  the  new  state  and  many  native  sovereigns  who 
have  confederated  with  vis  and  hoisted  our  flag. 

"This  is  the  present  situation  and  prospects  of  the  enterprise." 

It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  no  barbarous  people  have  ever  so 
readily  adopted  the  fostering  care  of  benevolent  enterprise  as  have  the 


502  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

tribes  of  the  Congo,  and  never  was  there  a  more  honest  and  practical 
effort  made  to  increase  their  knowledge  and  secure  their  welfare. 

The  people  of  the  Congo  country  and  their  benefactors  alike  deserve 
the  friendly  recognition  of  the  United  States  in  their  new  national 
character. 

Your  committee,  therefore,  report  a  substitute  for  the  resolutions 
referred  to  them  by  the  Senate,  and  recommend  its  passage. 

(From  the  Revue  de  Droit  International) 

THE  FREE  NAVIGATION  OF  THE  CONGO 
By  sir  TRAVERS  TWISS 

The  Congress  of  Vienna  inaugurated  a  new  era  in  the  reciprocal 
relations  of  European  states,  by  laying  down  the  principle  that  these 
relations  should  be  subordinated  to  the  interests  of  the  European 
community  in  case  of  conflict  between  the  individual  interests  of 
the  states  and  that  which  is  just  in  an  international  point  of  view.  It 
is  a  fact,  which  is  apparent  to  every  attentive  observer  of  the  great 
political  evolutions  of  our  centvuy,  that  it  is  more  and  more  per- 
ceived that  the  community  of  nations  create  obligations  towards  it, 
and  that  the  empire  of  this  community  over  the  states  which  form 
part  of  it  has  several  times  obtained  formal  sanction  by  means  of  con- 
ferences whose  protocols  point  out  to  us  the  considerations  which 
dominated  their  counsels.  These  protocols  form  declarations  of  which 
all  the  participants  are  the  sureties.  We  are  proud  of  modern  civil- 
isation. We  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the  progress  of  interna- 
tional law  among  civilised  nations.  We  are  therefore  justified,  it 
seems  to  me,  in  asking  of  the  states  which  participate  in  the  European 
concert  of  public  law,  whether  it  would  not  be  possible  to  assert  this 
principle  of  duty  towards  the  community  of  states  as  a  means  of 
solving  the  question  of  the  Congo,  without  awaiting  the  stern  necessity 
of  intervening  to  put  an  end  to  war,  or,  at  the  least,  the  occasion  of 
offering  mediation  to  avert  a  recourse  to  the  sad  arbitrament  of  the 
sword.  The  Congo  question  is  in  the  condition  of  a  young  tropical 
plant,  whose  germ  has  not  yet  commenced  to  develop,  but  which  will 
perhaps  assume  suddenly  unexpected  proportions. 

I  have  already  treated  of  the  free  navigation  of  the  Lower  Congo, 
but  I  have  omitted,  or  at  least  only  glanced  at  the  idea  of  an  interna- 
tional protectorate,  under  the  cegis  of  which  a  modus  vivendi  could  be 
established  upon  a  solid  basis  of  stipulated  right,  among  the  diverse 
nationalities  whose  flags  float  over  the  factories  of  Banana  Creek,  at 
the  entrance  of  the  Congo,  and  thus  proclaim  the  cosmopolitan  char- 
acter of  the  settlement.  Ascending  the  channel  of  the  river,  Punto 
da  Lenha  is  reached,  where  a  pentarchy,  so  to  say,  of  European  flags 


Appendix  503 

equally  affirms  the  cosmopolitan  character  of  the  port,  and  gives 
notification  that  the  individual  interests  which  prevail  there  rest 
under  the  protection  of  five  states.  Formerly,  a  common  end,  the 
slave  trade,  was  the  only  bond  which  united  those  diverse  nationali- 
ties in  a  kind  of  commercial  fraternity.  To-day  there  exists  between 
them  a  law  of  usage,  intended  to  regulate  their  common  interests; 
but  this  usage  leaves  much  to  be  desired,  and  it  does  not  control  the 
private  life  of  the  residents  of  each  factory,  who  are  free  to  regulate, 
according  to  their  own  pleasure,  their  relations  with  the  natives.  In 
fact,  there  does  not  exist  social  order,  properly  so  called,  among  the 
factories;  there  is  no  collective  will  among  their  members,  no  author- 
ity which  they  are  bound  to  obey,  and  one  may  say,  "  Ubi  nulla 
societas,  ibi  nullum  jus."  The  sad  truth  of  this  axiom  is  confirmed  by 
the  stories  of  frightful  cruelties  committed  upon  the  natives  in  the 
year  1877,  an  account  of  which  can  be  found  in  the  dispatches  of  the 
English  consuls  to  their  Government.  {Parliamentary  Papers,  Africa, 
No.  2,  1883.) 

M.  Moynier,  president  of  the  International  Committee  of  the  Red 
Cross,  at  Geneva,  called  the  attention  of  the  Institute  of  International 
Law,  during  its  last  session  at  Munich,  to  the  question  of  the  Congo, 
and  the  readers  of  the  Review  will  remember  the  proposition  which  M. 
Emile  de  Laveleye  developed  thereupon  (pp.  254-262),  asking,  in  the 
interests  of  humanity,  that  the  waters  of  the  Congo  should  be  neu- 
tralised by  European  action.  M.  Moynier  had  already  treated  of  this 
subject  at  the  Institute  in  Paris,  in  September,  1878;  but  it  was  not 
expected  at  that  time  that  the  majestic  course  of  waters  explored  by 
Stanley  in  1877  would  soon  become  the  object  of  dangerous  rivalries. 
The  result  has  proved  that  the  whites,  who  have  formed  many  stations 
upon  the  Upper  Congo  and  its  affluents,  have  already  run  the  risk  of 
being  engaged  in  competitions  which  may  disturb  the  good  feeling 
between  the  newcomers  and  the  natives,  to  whom  European  civilisa- 
tion should  bring  only  benefits.  The  arrival  at  Stanley  Pool  of  a 
French  expedition  which  ascended  the  channel  of  the  river  Ogouve, 
from  the  affluents  of  the  Congo,  has  introduced  upon  the  banks  of 
tlie  Upper  Congo  the  representative  of  a  European  Government,  who 
has  taken  possession,  in  the  name  of  France,  of  a  territory  ceded  by 
the  native  chiefs  of  the  country. 

It  is  evident  from  the  very  nature  of  things  that  the  question  of 
the  Congo  may  properly  be  divided  into  two  parts,  for  the  Lower  Congo 
is  already  subjected  to  an  order  of  things  entirely  exceptional,  in  which 
five  European  nations  participate.  This  condition  of  affairs  was  based 
originally  upon  a  common  traffic  in  slaves,  to  which  has  succeeded  a 
legitimate  trade  with  the  natives — a  commerce  in  which  the  European 
nations  take  part  in  a  perfectly  independent  manner,  each  for  itself. 
In  spite  of  that,  there  is  on  the  Lower  Congo,  because  of  these  na- 


504  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

tionalities,  a  certain  solidarity  of  interest  which  counsels  a  common 
accord  upon  the  subject  of  the  navigation  and  the  police  of  the  river. 
But,  as  I  have  before  said,  as  far  as  regards  criminal  jurisdiction,  the 
whites  of  each  factory  regard  themselves  as  independent,  and  not  as 
responsible  to  any  Government  whatsoever. 

The  Upper  Congo,  on  the  contrary,  bathes  the  territories  of  many 
native  tribes.  Their  chiefs  have  granted  stations  to  the  agents  of  the 
International  Association,  which  depend  upon  no  European  sovereign, 
but  which  are  modelled  upon  certain  institutions  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
to  enable  the  population  of  barbarous  Africa  to  participate  in  the 
advantages  of  European  civilisation.  All  the  stations  which  this 
Association  possesses  have  been  acquired  peaceably  by  treaties  with 
sovereign  chiefs  of  the  country.  It  governs  them  by  intelligent  men, 
belonging  to  all  European  nationalities.  And,  moreover,  it  has  hoisted 
over  these  stations  a  flag  which  signifies  that  they  belong  to  no  especial 
nation,  but  that  they  form  part  of  an  International  Association 
founded  in  the  interests  of  the  natives,  and  which  represents  all 
countries  interested  in  the  progress  of  humanity.  A  single  European 
nation  has  entered  this  humanitarian  arena,  and  that  is  the  French 
Republic,  w-hich,  in  accepting,  as  a  European  State,  the  cession  of 
territory  made  to  M.  Savorgnan  de  Brazza,  has  notified  the  civilised 
world  that  France  has  not  sought  to  put  private  interests  in  opposition 
to  the  general  interests  of  civilisation,  represented  in  Africa  by  a  flag, 
the  principal  merit  of  which  is  precisely  that  of  not  being  the  flag  of 
any  one  power.  (See  Report  presented  by  the  Government  of  the 
Republic  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  20th  November,  1882.) 

' '  Neither  in  the  spirit  of  your  Commission  [it  is  there  said]  nor  in 
the  views  of  the  Government,  is  there  any  purpose  at  this  moment  to 
go  upon  the  banks  of  the  Congo,  or  upon  the  neighbouring  shores  with 
military  array,  but  simply  to  found  scientific,  hospitable,  and  com- 
mercial stations,  without  other  military  force  than  may  be  strictly 
necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  establishments  successively  created. " 

Unfortunately,  the  appearance  of  a  European  national  flag  upon 
the  banks  of  Stanley  Pool  raised  the  question  whether  the  agent  of  an 
association  which  had  not  the  political  character  of  a  State,  could,  by  a 
cession  of  the  actual  Sovereign  of  the  countrj^  acquire  and  exercise  the 
sovereignty  of  a  territory  situated  outside  of  Europe.  I  say  outside  of 
Europe,  because  we  do  not  seek  to  find  the  solution  of  such  a  problem, 
as  affecting  Africa  or  Asia,  in  the  existing  political  condition  of  affairs 
in  Europe,  nor  in  the  fixed  regulations  of  European  society,  upon  which 
that  condition  of  things  rests,  but  in  the  unwritten  law  of  nations, 
which  should  regulate  the  relations  between  free  peoples,  no  matter  to 
what  family  they  belong,  nor  what  religion  they  profess.  Yet  the 
practice  of  Europe,  while  Christianity  was  seeking  to  accomplish  the 
high  mission  of  civilising  the  barbarous  races  on  the  northern  and 


Appendix  505 

eastern  frontiers,  merits  our  attention,  because  of  a  certain  analogy 
between  the  condition  of  those  frontiers  in  the  eleventh  century,  and 
the  present  condition  of  Equatorial  Africa. 

In  order,  therefore,  to  appreciate  the  action  of  the  International 
African  Association,  and  to  fathom  the  question  whether  this  action 
is  without  precedent  in  the  action  of  European  peoples,  it  will  be 
profitable,  in  the  first  place,  to  study  the  archives  of  a  period  when 
Europe  was  not  entirely  Christian,  and  when  Christianity  made  a 
propaganda  among  the  native  pagan  tribes  who  at  that  time  inhabited 
a  part  of  the  country  which  we  now  call  Prussia.  This  study  will 
bring  to  our  knowledge  the  action  of  an  international  association  which 
accomplished  the  civilisation  of  a  country  inhabited  by  people  who 
might  be  called  savages,  and,  at  the  same  time,  will  furnish  a  refuta- 
tion of  the  assertion  put  forth  by  certain  publicists  that  States  alone 
can  exercise  the  rights  of  sovereignty. 

M.  de  Laveleye,  before  cited,  has  made  allusion  to  the  Teutonic 
Order  as  an  institution  for  the  propagation  of  civilisation,  which,  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  carried  ci\41isation  to  the  populations  on  the  borders 
of  the  Baltic  and  cemented  them  to  the  rest  of  Europe.  The  action 
of  this  famous  order  in  regard  to  the  acquisition  of  the  sovereignty  of 
a  barbarous  country  has  an  important  analogy  to  the  action  of  the 
International  African  Association. 

Thus  this  order  was  originally  a  charitable  association  of  Germans 
which  the  citizens  of  the  free  cities  of  Bremen  and  Lubeck  instituted 
at  the  siege  of  St.  Jean  d'Acre,  during  the  Fourth  Crusade.  After- 
wards, this  association  constituted  itself  into  an  order  of  chivalry 
towards  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  and,  after  the  religious  en- 
thusiasm to  which  the  Crusades  had  given  birth  had  ceased  to  in- 
flame the  nations  of  Southern  Europe,  the  order  established  itself  at 
Culm,  in  the  country  which  is  now  called  Western  Prussia,  where 
Conrad,  Duke  of  Massovie,  of  the  Polish  Dynasty  of  the  Piasts,  ceded 
to  it  a  territory  and  assured  to  it  the  conquests  it  might  make  over  the 
idolatrous  Prussians.  The  order  by  gradual  steps  established  its 
dominion  with  Christianity  over  the  whole  of  Prussia.  The  city  of 
Konigsberg,  upon  the  Pregel,  was  built  by  it  in  1255,  and  the  city  of 
Marienbourg,  upon  the  Nougat,  which  became  afterwards  the  capital 
of  the  order,  dates  its  foundation  back  to  the  year  1276.' 

Another  order,  that  of  the  Chevalier's  Sword- Bearers  (Ensijerri), 
was  established  in  Livonia,  where,  finding  itself  too  weak  to  sustain  the 
attacks  of  the  pagans,  it  ended  by  uniting  itself  to  the  Teutonic  Order. 
This  union  rendered  the  Teutonic  Order  so  powerful  it  was  able  to 

'  The  Schloss  Hauptmann  of  the  Castle  of  Marienbourg,  formerly 
the  palace  of  the  grand  master  of  the  order,  is  now  appointed  by  the 
King  of  Prussia. 


5o6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

establish  its  authority  over  the  whole  of  Prussia,  Courland,  and  Sene- 
gal, and  from  the  annalists  of  that  time  we  learn  that  in  converting 
the  people  to  Christianity  the  Teutonic  Order  subjected  them  to  an 
exceedingly  hard  yoke.  The  Teutonic  Order  maintained  itself  in  the 
sovereignty  of  this  country  until  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
when  it  was  subjected  to  great  territorial  losses  in  a  war  against 
Poland,  and  was  compelled  to  become  the  vassal  of  the  King  of  Poland 
for  East  Prussia.  It  is  upon  the  embers  of  this  order  that  the 
Prussian  monarchy  was  established  by  the  courage  of  the  descendants 
of  Duke  Albert  of  Brandenbourg,  grand  master  of  the  order,  the  first 
Duke  of  Prussia. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that,  during  all  this  time  that  this  order  was 
sovereign,  it  was  not  recognised  as  a  State,  and  that  the  master  of 
Livonia  was  not  admitted  to  a  sitting  and  vote  among  the  States  of 
the  German  Empire  until  after  this  order  had  ceased  to  be  sovereign. 

The  City  of  Dantzic  was,  for  two  centuries,  up  to  1454,  the  mari- 
time capital  of  the  order,  and  it  may  be  said  that  the  Teutonic  Order 
was  the  supreme  power  during  two  centuries  on  the  shores  of  the 
Eastern  Baltic,  without  being  organised  as  a  State. ^ 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  south  of  Europe,  there  was  an  order  of 
chivalry  whose  services  to  civilisation  in  defending  Christian  countries 
against  the  invasions  of  the  Arabs  and  the  Turks  are  more  famous 
even  than  those  of  the  Teutonic  Order.  I  refer  to  the  sovereign  Order 
of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem.  This  order,  originally  founded  for  the  serv- 
ice of  the  hospital  of  St.  John  at  Jerusalem,  quitted  the  holy  city  at 
the  commencement  of  the  fourteenth  century  and  established  itself 
in  the  island  of  Rhodes  to  defend  the  frontiers  of  Christianity  against 
the  attacks  of  the  Saracens.  Then  it  had  to  give  up  the  island  of 
Rhodes  to  the  Turks,  and  it  established  itself  in  the  island  of  Malta, 
of  which  it  obtained  the  territorial  sovereignty  as  a  gift  from  the  Em- 
peror, Charles  V.,  in  1530.  Even  this  order  adopted  a  territorial 
title,  that  of  the  Order  of  Chevaliers  of  Malta,  and  maintained  its 
sovereignty  over  this  island  until  the  year  1798.  The  English  having 
soon  after  become  masters  of  the  island  by  conquest  from  the  French, 
it  was  proposed  by  the  Congress  of  Amiens,  the  27th  March,  1802,  to 
restore  the  fortress  of  Malta  to  the  Order  of  St.  John,  and  to  put  the 
independence  of  the  island  under  the  guarantee  of  the  powers  uniting 
in  that  congress.  This  project  failed.  At  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  in 
1 81 5,  the  Order    of    Malta   demanded    to   be    provided  with  another 

'  The  old  Teutonic  Order  was  suppressed  in  the  year  1809  at  the 
peace  of  Luneville,  when  the  grand  master  of  the  order  was  secularised 
for  the  archduke  to  be  chosen  by  the  emperor.  It  may  be  said  of  the 
Teutonic  Order  that  it  was  renewed  in  1824  and  reorganised  in  1840 
and  1865,  but  that  it  is  the  shadow  of  a  great  glory — magni  stat  nominis 
umbra. 


Appendix  507 

sovereign  establishment  in  the  Mediterranean  suitable  for  the  institu- 
tion of  the  order,  and  that  its  independence  and  neutrality  should 
be  guaranteed  by  all  the  powers.  The  congress  would  not  listen  to 
this  demand. 

I  have  cited  these  two  examples  to  show  that  according  to  the  law 
of  usage  of  Europe,  associations  which  are  not  organised  as  states 
can,  nevertheless,  exercise  sovereign  rights.  But  it  may  be  said  that 
these  orders  of  chivalry  were  privileged  orders,  and  that  they  belong 
to  an  epoch  when  Christian  civilisation  was  propagated  at  the  sword's 
point.  Putting  aside,  then,  the  military  epoch  of  the  civilising  pro- 
paganda, let  us  pass  to  the  commercial  era  inaugurated  by  the  dis- 
coveries of  Christopher  Columbus  and  Vasco  de  Gama.  The  theory 
of  publicists  which  we  have  to  examine  is  this,  that  a  private  asso- 
ciation cannot  exercise  sovereign  rights  in  a  barbarous  country.  A 
learned  collaborateur  of  the  Revue  de  geographie,  of  Paris,  has  formu- 
lated it  in  these  terms:  "It  is  a  principle  of  law  that  states  alone  can 
exercise  sovereign  rights;  that  no  private  company  can  have  them. "' 
It  is  evident  that  this  proposition  is  affirmed  by  M.  Delavand  in  too 
absolute  a  manner,  for  the  facts  of  history  contradict  it.  Among  the 
members  who  formed  the  great  Union  of  the  United  States  of  North 
America  there  were  at  least  four  which  owed  their  origin  to  private 
associations,  whose  territorial  sovereignty  had  been  established  be- 
fore they  received  any  charter  of  incorporation  from  the  Crown  of 
England.  Everybody  knows  that  a  commercial  company  acquired 
by  treaties  with  the  natives  the  sovereignty  of  the  English  Indies.  A 
similar  Dutch  company  acquired  and  exercised  sovereign  rights  in  the 
island  of  Java  and  in  the  Malaccas.  Should  there  be  a  different  rule 
in  Africa  from  that  which  has  prevailed  in  America  and  Asia?  Or 
should  there  be,  for  the  young  republics  of  the  nineteenth  century,  a 
law  of  nations  directly  opposed  to  that  which  prevailed  at  the  founda- 
tion of  the  independent  States  on  the  shores  of  North  America — 
States  whose  federation  gave  birth  to  the  parent  republic  of  our  age? 
I  do  not  think  so.  Doubtless  the  national  law  of  a  country  may  pro- 
hibit its  citizens  from  accepting  the  sovereignty  of  a  barbarous  coun- 
try, but  the  international  question  must  not  be  confounded  with  the 
question  of  national  law,  in  regard  to  which  we  may  sa.y,"  Extra  tcrri- 
toriutn  jus  dicenti  intpune  -non  parctnr" 

Will  it  be  said  that  these  ideas  are  superannuated;  that  they  do 
not  belong  to  our  age?  I  will  reply  by  a  very  recent  example,  which 
has  been  the  subject  of  discussion  between  the  Governments  of  Spain, 
the  Netherlands,  and  Great  Britain.  It  is  known  that  certain  native 
chiefs  on  the  northern  coast  of  the  island  of  Borneo  delegated  to  a 
European,  a  private  individual,  rights  implying  the  exercise  of  terri- 

»  Vol.  xii.  of  the  Revue  above  cited,  p.  224. 


5o8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

torial  sovereignty ;  that  the  person  to  whom  the  chiefs  of  the  country 
had  delegated  supreme  power,  under  the  title  of  maharaja,  ceded  his 
rights  to  a  private  company,  and  that  that  company  obtained  from 
the  English  Crown  a  charter  of  incorporation.  It  may  be  said  that 
the  history  of  the  propagation  of  civilisation  in  the  seventeenth  cent- 
ury in  America  is  renewed  in  Asia  and  Africa  in  the  nineteenth  cent- 
ury. The  English  Government  regarded  this  delegation  of  sovereign 
rights  by  native  chiefs,  in  return  for  an  annual  subsidy,  as  a  sufficient 
title  to  enable  the  company  to  exercise  these  powers,  and  sustained 
this  proposition  before  the  House  of  Commons.  In  reply  to  a  ques- 
tion in  regard  to  the  granting  of  the  charter  of  incorporation,  Sir  Henry 
James,  Attorney  General,  said: 

"The  rights  which  have  been  accorded  the  company  have  become 
legally  its  property,  and  it  would  have  been  an  act  of  confiscation  if 
the  Government  of  Her  Majesty  had  attempted  to  deprive  it  of  them." 

And  the  prime  minister,  Mr.  Gladstone,  also  affirmed  that  the 
charter  had  not  granted  to  the  company  any  power  to  exercise  rights 
implying  sovereignty  which  it  had  not  already  acquired  by  delegation 
from  native  chiefs.  A  correspondent  of  the  Revue  de  geographic  of 
Paris  has  specified  these  rights  according  to  the  contents  of  the  act  of 
delegation.^  It  is  not  doubtful  that  in  virtue  of  this  act  the  company, 
without  being  a  state,  can  exercise  sovereign  rights  over  a  considerable 
territory  in  the  northern  part  of  the  island  of  Borneo.  M.  E.  de 
Laveleye,  before  cited,  says  that  Germany,  formally  consulted  by  the 
British  Government  in  1882,  did  not  question  the  capacity  of  private 
individuals  or  of  companies  to  obtain  from  non-civilised  Sovereigns 
the  concession  of  rights  implying  the  exercise  of  rights  of  sovereignty. 
The  Governments  of  the  Netherlands  and  of  Spain  did  not  deny  such 
power,  but  they  claimed  to  have  anterior  rights  over  the  northern 
portion  of  Borneo;  and  it  was  in  virtue  of  those  anterior  rights  that 
they  protested  against  the  rights  claimed  by  the  British  North  Borneo 
Company.  It  is,  therefore,  evident  that  the  obstacles  which  the 
establishment  of  stations  by  the  International  Association  upon  the 
Upper  Congo  might  meet  with  from  European  powers  are  not  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  they  are  in  contravention  of  any  law  of  nations 
by  virtue  of  which  states  alone  can  exercise  sovereign  rights,  but 
solely  in  the  fact  that  Portugal  pretends,  by  reason  of  anterior  rights, 
to  deny  the  capacity  of  the  native  chiefs  of  the  country  to  cede  the 
sovereignty  of  a  part  of  their  territories  without  the  consent  of 
Portugal. 

It  appears,  in  the  meantime,  that  the   British  Government  did  not 

^  Mr.  A.  J.  Wauters,  assistant  secretary  of  the  International  Con- 
gress of  Commercial  Geography,  1879.  First  number  of  the  Revue, 
July  I,  1883,  p.  63. 


Appendix  509 

yield  to  the  pretensions  raised  by  Holland  and  Spain  concerning  the 
northern  part  of  the  island  of  Borneo,  and  that  the  Government  of 
the  French  Republic,  in  spite  of  the  pretensions  of  Portugal,  has 
recognised  the  supremacy  of  a  native  king  upon  the  Upper  Congo,  and 
has  accepted  the  cession  of  his  hereditary  rights.  This  treaty,  con- 
cluded by  M.  Savorgnan  de  Brazza,  as  the  representative  of  France, 
at  Neousa,  the  30th  October,  1880,  ceded  to  France  a  territory  which 
was  in  the  possession  of  certain  chiefs,  vassals  of  the  King  Makoko; 
and  said  chiefs  signed  the  treaty,  whilst  the  King  Makoko,  in  his 
capacity  as  suzerain  of  these  chiefs,  ceded  to  France,  by  an  act  in- 
vested with  his  mark,  his  rights  of  supremacy  over  this  territory.  It 
seems,  therefore,  that  there  is  no  place  for  a  suzerainty  of  Portugal  over 
the  regions  arotmd  Stanley  Pool,  according  to  the  opinion  of  the 
Government  of  the  French  Republic,  for  the  Senate  and  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies  authorised  the  President  of  the  Republic  to  ratify  the 
treaty  and  act  above  mentioned,  and  the  President  has  promulgated  a 
law  to  give  them  full  effect. 

It  might  reasonably  be  asked,  if  there  is  any  difference  in  principle 
between  the  right  of  African  chiefs,  admitting  they  are  sovereigns 
of  a  territory,  and  the  right  of  Asiatic  chiefs  to  cede  their  territory 
to  a  private  company.  France,  at  least,  has  recognised  the  right 
of  King  Makoko,  suzerain  of  the  Batakes,  to  cede  to  a  European  State 
his  rights  of  sovereignty,  and  the  right  of  the  chiefs  subordinate  to 
his  authority  to  cede  the  possession  of  the  parts  of  the  territory  they 
occupied.  Why  should  it  be  forbidden  to  a  native  chief  to  cede  his 
territory  to  an  international  European  company,  which,  according  to 
the  law  of  nations,  is  perfectly  capable  of  accepting  and  exercising 
such  a  sovereignty? 

The  Contite  d'Etudes  of  the  Upper  Congo — for  it  is  necessary  to 
distinguish  between  the  association  which  occupies  the  Lower  Congo 
and  the  association  which  occupies  the  Upper  Congo — has  made, 
through  Mr.  Stanley,  with  the  native  chiefs,  treaties,  which  in  regard 
to  their  tenor  resemble  more  closely  the  treaties  concluded  by  the 
British  Society  with  the  Sultans  of  Brunei  and  Sooloo,  in  the  island  of 
Borneo,  than  the  treaties  concluded  by  the  native  chiefs  of  the  Upper 
Congo  with  M.  Savorgnan  de  Brazza.  Take  for  example  the  treaty 
which  Captain  Eliot,  agent  of  Mr.  Stanley,  concluded  with  the  Chief 
Manipembo,  the  20th  of  May  of  this  year.  The  first  three  articles  de- 
clare that  the  Chief  Manipembo  cedes  and  abandons  to  the  committee 
of  the  Upper  Congo,  in  full  property,  certain  territories  in  return  for  a 
present  the  receipt  of  which  is  acknowledged,  and  he  solemnly  de- 
clares that  these  territories  form  an  integral  part  of  his  State,  and  that 
he  can  freely  dispose  of  them.  It  is  clearly  evident  from  the  tenor  of 
these  articles  that  the  Chief  Manipembo  recognises  no  superior  chief 
Article  IV.  of  the  treaty  states  that  the  cession  of  territory'  carries  with 


5IO  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

it  the  abandonment  by  the  above-named  chief,  and  the  transfer  to 
the  committee  of  all  his  sovereign  rights. 

Was  this  transmission  of  sovereign  rights  to  the  committee  of  the 
Upper  Congo  illegal  according  to  the  law  of  nations?  It  is  indis- 
putable that  the  Chief  Manipembo  was  legally  capable  of  concluding 
treaties  with  European  Powers,  for  the  French  Republic,  through  M. 
Cordier,  on  the  12th  of  March  of  this  year,  concluded  with  him  and 
■with  the  King  of  Loango  treaties  by  which  all  the  left  bank  of  the 
river  Quillou,'  which  empties  into  the  Bay  of  Loango,  is  placed  under 
the  protectorate  of  France. 

Concerning  the  exercise  of  sovereign  rights  by  the  committee  of 
the  Upper  Congo,  accjuircd  by  treaties  with  native  chiefs,  if  reliance 
can  be  placed  upon  an  article  in  the  Journal  V Export,  which  professes 
to  have  its  facts  from  good  authority,  the  committee  has  instructed 
its  representatives,  in  case  of  expeditions  from  any  nation  seeking  to 
establish  themselves  there,  to  give  them  gratuitously  the  necessary 
land.  The  committee  wishes  especially  to  create  colonies  at  the  sta- 
tions of  the  Congo,  and  to  see  developed  there  a  new  kind  of  free 
cities.  An  idea  which  may  throw  some  light  on  the  future  of  the 
Upper  Congo  is  this:  An  International  Protectorate  of  the  Lower 
Congo,  under  the  presidency  of  Portugal,  and  a  system  of  free  cities 
for  the  Upper  Congo. 

History  teaches  us  that  the  march  of  the  caravans  which  traverse 
the  sandy  deserts  of  Northern  Africa  has  been  rendered  possible  by 
the  existence  of  certain  spots  where  nature  has  made  provision  of 
water  and  vegetation  where  travellers  and  camels  can  rest  and  refresh 
themselves.  Why  should  not  a  philanthropic  association  be  per- 
mitted to  imitate  this  foresight  of  nature,  and  to  establish,  like  these 
oases,  free  cities  at  certain  distances  upon  the  banks  of  the  great  river 
of  Equatorial  Africa,  to  facilitate  the  progress  of  a  humane  civilisation 
and  the  development  of  a  beneficent  commerce? 

The  institution  of  free  cities  in  Germany  greatly  accelerated  the 
progress  of  the  arts  and  civilisation  in  Europe,  and  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  these  cities  in  the  fourteenth  century  teaches  us  that  by 
means  of  such  an  organisation  a  nearly  barbarous  country  can  be 
erected  into  a  civilised  body  upon  an  industrial  and  commercial  basis. 
These  cities,  either  through  their  origin  or  by  virtue  of  the  charters 
granted  them  by  sovereign  powers,  secured  to  themsehes  a  free  gov- 
ernment, which  assured  to  their  citizens  personal  liberty  and  the  owner- 
ship of  their  property  under  the  protection  of  their  own  magistrates. 

The  traveller  in  the  free  city  of  Bremen,  on  arriving  at  the  market- 
place, will  see  before  him  a  great  stone  column  which  is  called  the 
Rolands  Saule.  This  column  supports  the  colossal  figure  of  a  man, 
holding  in  his  right  hand  a  sword,  and  crushing  under  his  feet  the  head 

^  Niadi-Kwilu. 


Appendix  5" 

and  hand  of  a  man.  This  is  emblematical  of  the  right  of  the  city  to 
dispose  of  the  lives  and  labour  of  its  inhabitants.  The  present  column 
was  erected  in  141 2,  but  it  replaced  a  wooden  column  which  dated 
back  to  the  period  of  the  First  Crusade,  and  whose  origin  is  unknown. 
Other  monuments  of  analogous  character  to  this  are  found  in  many  of 
the  cities  of  Germany,  and  they  are  symbols  of  the  right  which  the 
magistrates  of  these  cities  had  to  exercise  both  civil  and  criminal 
jurisdiction.  They  bear  witness  that  these  cities  were  siii  juris  in 
regard  to  the  power  to  make  and  execute  their  laws.  Should  an  in- 
stitution which  contributed  so  much  to  attach  the  North  of  Europe  to 
the  civilisation  of  the  South,  which  rooted  itself  so  firmly  upon  the 
shores  of  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic  that  its  vitality  withstood  the 
strain  of  wars  and  civil  dissensions  for  six  centuries, — should  that  be 
regarded  as  an  innovation  in  the  usages  of  nations  when  transplanted 
into  Equatorial  Africa? 

When  the  Dutch  Provinces  of  Spain  revolted  against  the  Spanish 
Crown,  and  the  Prince  of  Orange  granted  letters  of  mark  to  individuals, 
to  make  reprisals  against  Spain,  the  Spanish  Government  refused  to 
recognise  the  legality  of  these  letters  of  mark,  upon  the  pretext  that  a 
republic  could  not  exercise  rights  of  admiralty  which  belonged  ex- 
clusively to  crowned  heads.  This  is  the  origin  of  the  term  of  oppro- 
brium, quex  de  mer,  which  the  Spaniards  employed  to  degrade  the 
Dutch,  but  which  the  Dutch  adopted  as  a  title  of  honour.  In  the 
same  way  as  now,  it  was  then  attempted  to  make  it  appear  that  under 
the  law  of  nations  states  alone  could  exercise  sovereign  rights.  But 
the  facts  contradicted  this  proposition.  The  suggestion  recalls  the 
fable  of  the  hare  and  the  tortoise.  According  to  the  principles  of  pure 
mathematics  the  tortoise  should  never  be  able  to  catch  the  hare,  but 
the  problem  is  simplified  enormously  when  recourse  is  had  to  the 
proof  of  the  facts.  To  use  a  scholastic  expression,  "Experience  dis- 
covers the  truth" — solvitur  ambulando.  For  example,  the  right  of  the 
International  African  Association  to  hoist  a  flag  upon  its  steamboats 
upon  the  Lower  Congo  cannot  be  denied,  while  the  English  society,  in 
possession  of  the  rights  of  the  Sultans  of  Brunei  and  Sooloo,  implying 
the  exercise  of  rights  of  sovereignty,  has  raised  its  flag,  and  the  British 
admiralty  has  been  authorised  to  recognise  it. 

To  return  to  the  objection  of  certain  publicists  that  a  State  alone  can 
exercise  sovereign  rights.  The  free  cities  of  ancient  Rome  and  of  the 
empire  of  Germany  (to  distinguish  it  from  the  present  empire)  were 
not  subjects  of  the  Emperor,  but  vassals  of  the  empire,  and  when  the 
free  city  of  Strasbourg  capitulated,  in  the  year  1681,  the  King  of  France 
received  it  under  his  royal  protection,  and  it  preserved  all  its  privi- 
leges and  its  magistrates  with  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction,  as  a  free 
republic,  with  a  territorial  zone,  under  the  protection  of  France,  until 
the  French  Revolution. 


512  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

What  are  the  obstacles  which  delay  the  establishment  of  a  system 
of  free  cities  on  the  banks  of  the  Upper  Congo,  and  which  prevent  the 
powers  whose  subjects  have  establishments  on  the  Lower  Congo  from 
coming  to  an  agreement  as  to  an  international  protectorate  of  the 
river?  There  is  a  European  power  which  arrogates  to  itself,  in  virtue 
of  a  discovery  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  Congo  in  the  year  1484,  the 
sovereignty  of  all  territory  watered  by  this  river  and  its  affluents.  I 
do  not  speak  of  the  pretensions  of  this  power  over  all  the  territory  of 
the  west  coast  of  Africa,  between  5°,  12',  and  8°  south  latitude — pre- 
tensions which  have  been  contested  by  France,  by  Holland,  and  even 
by  England  since  the  slave  trade  was  abolished  by  conventions  be- 
tween the  British  and  Portuguese  Governments.  So  long  as  the  slave 
trade  existed,  everybody  hunted  Negroes  in  common  in  the  regions  of 
the  Congo.  Since  the  slave  trade  was  abolished  the  maritime  powers 
of  Europe  have  treated  the  pretensions  of  Portugal  with  courtesy, 
but  not  one  has  admitted  them. 

I  affirm,  with  all  the  respect  due  to  the  coimtry  of  Prince  Henry 
the  Navigator,  that  this  is  the  condition  of  things  upon  the  Congo, 
although  the  Portuguese  Government,  in  a  circular  dispatch,  written 
in  reply  to  a  resolution  of  the  Institute  of  International  Law,  has 
asserted  that  its  rights  are  not  disputed. 

In  support  of  this  assertion  of  the  Portuguese  Government  the 
author  of  the  dispatch  cites  an  incident  of  the  last  Franco-German 
war.  During  the  war  a  French  corvette  captured  a  German  merchant 
vessel,  the  Hero,  lying  at  anchor  in  Banana  Creek,  inside  the  mouths 
of  the  Congo.  The  circular  dispatch  states  that  the  German  Govern-- 
ment  requested  the  Portuguese  Government  to  demand  the  rendition 
of  the  prize,  as  captured  in  Portuguese  waters;  but  it  does  not  say 
that  the  Portuguese  Government  took  any  steps  before  the  French 
prize  courts,  or  that  the  French  Government  acceded  thereto.  The 
statement  of  facts  stops  there.  Then,  the  dispatch  says  that  "the 
news  soon  reached  Europe  that  the  French  governor  of  Gaboon, 
the  port  into  which  the  captor  had  carried  his  prize,  had  set  at  liberty 
the  crew,  and  caused  the  German  ship  to  be  taken  back  to  Banana 
Creek,  where  it  remained  at  anchor  till  the  close  of  the  war." 

The  author  of  the  dispatch  appears  to  me  the  victim  of  the  paral- 
ogism described  by  the  phrase  post  hoc,  propter  hoc,  for  he  attempts 
to  draw  from  these  facts  the ' '  irresistible  conclusion ' '  that  the  Governor 
of  Gaboon  recognised  the  waters  of  Banana  Creek  as  Portuguese 
waters.  It  appears,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  ship  was  set  at  liberty 
by  the  Governor  of  Gaboon,  ^notu  siio  proprio,  and  in  no  manner  on 
account  of  any  demand  of  the  Portuguese  Government;  and  the  only 
legitimate  conclusion  from  the  premises  is  this:  The  Governor  of 
Gaboon  recognised  that  the  capture  of  the  ship  had  been  effected  in 
territorial  waters,  where,  whether  they  belonged  to  a  native  King  or  to 


Appendix  513 

a  European  power,  France  had  not  the  right  as  a  belligerent  power  to 
capture  the  enemy's  ships.'  The  Governor  of  Gaboon  conducted  him- 
self loyally  without  waiting  special  instructions  from  his  Government. 
This  fact,  which  the  author  of  the  dispatch  cites  as  a  proof  of  Portu- 
guese sovereignty  over  the  territories  of  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  be- 
tween 5°,  12',  and  8°,  south  latitude,  comprising  the  mouths  of  the 
Congo,  has  absolutely  no  significance  as  an  argument. 

Another  event  which  the  dispatch  of  the  Portuguese  Government 
recalls  is  that  of  the  ist  of  May,  1877,  which  had  previously  acquired 
considerable  notoriety  by  the  publication  of  the  correspondence  be- 
tween the  Portuguese  Government  and  the  Government  of  her  Bri- 
tannic Majesty.  Several  old  slave-traders,  established  at  Punta  da 
Lenha,  were  carrying  on  a  regular  and  legal  commerce  with  the  na- 
tives, but,  at  the  same  time,  were  slave-owners.  In  consequence  of 
an  incendiary  attempt  upon  a  Dutch  factory,  the  residents  of  Punta 
da  Lenha  made  a  "noyade"  (drowning  of  several  persons  at  the  same 
time)  of  Negroes  in  the  river  opposite  Boma.  The  British  consul,  who 
resides  ordinarily  at  Saint  Paul  de  Loando,  which  city  is  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Portuguese  crown,  wished  to  make  inquiries  at  the 
scene  of  the  crime  in  regard  to  the  summary  execution  of  twenty-nine 
Negroes  by  order  of  their  masters,  but  he  did  not  dare  to  disembark  at 
Punta  da  Lenha  because  of  the  threats  of  the  inhabitants.  Under 
these  circumstances,  the  Portuguese  Government  conducted  itself  in 
a  very  proper  manner.  At  the  instance  of  Consul  Hopkins,  of  Loando, 
the  governor  of  the  Portuguese  province  of  Angola  sent  a  gunboat  to 
Punta  da  Lenha,  and  arrested  a  British  subject  named  Scott,  im- 
plicated in  the  noyade,  and  was  perfectly  willing  to  try  the  accused 
according  to  the  laws  of  Portugal  with  the  consent  of  the  English 
consul;  but  the  correspondence  between  the  two  governments  shows 
that  the  English  Government  was  unwilling  to  admit  Portuguese 
sovereignty  over  the  banks  of  the  Congo.  It  is  surprising  that  the 
author  of  the  circular  dispatch  should  have  cited  this  incident  as  in- 
dicating the  recognition  of  Portuguese  sovereignty  by  the  English 
Government,  when  the  correspondence  presented  to  the  British  Par- 
liament in  regard  to  the  matter  proves  precisely  the  reverse.  Here,  for 
example,  are  the  terms  of  a  dispatch  of  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote,  under 
secretary  of  state,  to  the  English  consul  at  Loando,  which  closes  the 
correspondence : 

"The  territory  in  which  these  outrages  have  been  committed  has 
long  been  claimed  by  the  Portuguese  Government,  and  this  claim  is 
renewed  in  the  correspondence  with  the  Portuguese  authorities  in- 

'  The  Times  of  the  5th  November,  1882,  in  which  an  English  transla- 
tion of  the  circular  dispatch  of  the  Portuguese  Government  is  pub- 
lished, says:  "Unquestionably  becaitse  the  Government  perceived 
that  the  capture  had  been  made  improperly." 


SH  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

closed  in  your  dispatches.  Her  Majesty's  Government,  however,  as 
you  are  aware,  have  always  contested  and  opposed  that  claim,  and 
cannot,  therefore,  admit  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Portuguese  tribunals 
to  deal  with  the  case  of  Scott. ' '  * 

No  one  accuses  Portugal  of  wishing  to  impede  the  free  navigation 
of  the  Congo,  but  it  is  to  be  regretted  that,  being  powerless  to  insure 
that  navigation  to  its  own  subjects,  it  is  unwilling  to  consent  to  a 
friendly  agreement  with  the  powers  whose  subjects  have  factories  upon 
the  north  bank,  to  put  the  navigation  of  the  river  beyond  risk  of 
danger.  I  have  said  advisedly  that  Portugal  is  powerless  to  insure 
the  navigation  of  the  river  to  its  own  subjects.  I  have  already  spoken 
of  the  tribes  which  inhabit  the  borders  of  Pirates'  Bay,  upon  the  north 
bank  of  the  river,  against  whom  the  English  commander,  Hewitt,  had 
to  organise  an  expedition  in  1875,  because  they  had  plundered  an  Eng- 
lish merchant  ship  and  massacred  the  crew.  But  there  is,  on  the 
south  bank,  a  considerable  tribe  who  practise  piracy  on  a  large  scale, 
and  do  not  even  respect  Portuguese  vessels.  The  pirates  especially 
infest  San  Antonio,  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  mouth,  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  column  of  Point  del  Padron.  The 
author  of  a  book  entitled  Four  Years  on  the  Cortgo,'  published  in  Paris, 
describes  an  attack  by  these  pirates  upon  a  Portuguese  brig.  The  ac- 
count is  interesting,  but  I  will  not  now  go  into  details.  What  it  im- 
ports is,  the  powerlessness  of  the  Portuguese  Government  to  suppress 
the  piracy  of  this  tribe  and  to  punish  the  guilty  ones.  I  cite  an  extract 
from  this  work  which  gives  the  history  of  the  Portuguese  expedition 
sent  to  punish  the  Mussorangos  who  had  attacked  the  Portuguese  brig: 

"On  the  15th  of  November  two  corvettes  and  the  frigate  La 
Guadiana  left  Loando.     The  little  fleet,  commanded  by  M.  Viegas  de 

C ,  headed  for  the  Congo.     The  commander  hoped  to  surprise  the 

Negroes.  Arrived  at  a  place  considered  sacred,  and  which  is  called 
the  "Stone  of  the  Fetish,"  they  anchored,  and  M.  Viegas  himself,  with 
one  company,  ascended  the  creek  in  a  steam  gunboat  and  effected  a 
landing,  which  the  savages  endeavoured  at  first  to  oppose;  but  soon 
afterwards,  dislodged  by  the  showers  of  grape  shot  from  the  frigate, 
moored  a  few  cables'  length  only  from  the  shore,  they  retired  in  good 
order.  Meanwhile,  the  little  band  of  whites,  finding  no  serious  resist- 
ance, advanced.  The  corvettes  shelled  the  \dllages  in  sight.  Some 
groups  of  Mussorangos,  who  had  stood  firm  till  then,  feeling  themselves 
vanquished  fled  in  every  direction,  returning  and  stopping,  from  time 
to  time,  behind  trees  to  discharge  their  guns  at  the  whites.  The  com- 
mander burned  all  the  villages  he  found.  That  was  all  that  could  be 
done.  It  would  not  have  been  prudent  to  march  at  a  venture  into  an 
unknown  country  in  search  of  an  unapproachable  enemy,  always  flee- 

'  Parliamentary  Papers,  Africa,  No.  2,  1882,  p.  86. 
2  Paris,  G.  Charpentier  &  Co.,  1883. 


Appendix  515 

mg.  It  was  necessary  to  re-embark;  the  ships  came  back  to  Banana, 
where  they  remained  some  days,  and  then  returned  to  Saint  Paul." 

This  is  a  very  recent  occurrence,  which  does  not  very  well  bear  out 
the  assertions  of  the  Portuguese  Government  relative  to  the  efficacy 
of  its  jurisdiction  as  remedy  for  the  disorders  of  the  Congo. 

"The  Congo  [says  the  author  of  the  circular  dispatch]  and  the 
territories  bordering  its  mouth  are  already  the  seat  of  an  important 
commerce,  and  of  European  establishments  of  diverse  nationalities, 
but  there  is  no  security  either  for  life  or  property,  no  police,  no  courts, 
nor  any  of  the  institutions  so  necessary  to  all  civilised  people,  and 
which  can  only  be  established  under  a  recognised  and  effective  juris- 
diction. And  such  jurisdiction  can  only  be  exercised  by  Portugal, 
because  no  other  nation  possesses  or  claims  any  rights  of  sovereignty 
over  these  territories."  '■ 

I  repeat,  the  good  intentions  of  Portugal  are  not  in  dispute.  What 
is  wanting  is  energy  and  material  power;  and  it  is  necessary  to  have 
these  in  order  to  civilise  the  country  discovered  by  the  agents  of  the 
International  Association.  Four  centuries  have  elapsed  since  Diego 
Cam,  a  Portuguese  cavalier,  erected  a  column  upon  the  Point  del 
Padron,  the  end  of  the  south  bank  of  the  river's  mouth,  in  commemora- 
tion of  the  fact  that  a  subject  of  the  crown  of  Portugal  had  discovered 
the  great  river  Congo.  This  same  point  is  to-day  in  the  hands  of 
a  native  tribe,  which  not  only  does  not  recognise  the  sovereignty 
of  Portugal,  but  openly  defies  it.  Nevertheless,  the  author  of  the 
circular  finds  much  fault  with  the  resolution  of  the  Institute  of  In- 
ternational Law,  because  that  resolution  implies,  according  to  him, 
forgetfulness  of  the  rights  of  Portugal.  What  rights?  There  exist 
rights  based  upon  the  discovery  of  the  country,  but  considering  that 
the  fleets  of  Pharaoh  Neco,  King  of  Egypt,  made  the  circuit  of  Africa, 
we  cannot  admit  that  the  legal  discovery  of  the  Congo  was  effected  by 
Diego  Cam.  But  rights  founded  upon  the  discovery  of  the  country  are 
only  imperfect  rights;  occupation  should  follow,  within  a  reasonable 
time,  to  render  them  perfect;  otherwise  the  discovery  becomes  inop- 
erative, like  an  abandoned  title.  Has  Portugal  occupied  both  banks 
of  the  Congo  to  acquire  possession  of  its  waters?  Have  we  the  proof 
of  it?  On  the  contrary,  the  very  territory  where  Cam  erected  this 
column  is  to-day  in  the  power  of  a  native  tribe,  who  have  always  resisted 
Portuguese  sovereignty,  and  who  openly  claim  to  be  (a  thing  almost 
incredible)  the  enemies  of  the  human  race  (Jiostes  humani  generis). 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  England,  which  pretends  to  no  sovereignty 
over  the  waters  of  the  Congo,  has  been  obliged  to  land  a  force 
upon  the  north  bank  to  chastise  an  act  of  piracy  committed  by  the 
inhabitants  of  the  creeks  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Banana. 

'  I  quote  the  te.xt  of  the  circular  as  published  in  the  Independance 
Beige  of  the  7th  November,  1883. 


5i6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

It  is  evident  that  very  soon  the  problem  of  the  free  navigation  of 
the  Congo  will  assume  such  proportions  that  the  solution  cannot  be 
longer  deferred.  Should  this  solution  wait  upon  a  state  which  up  to 
now  has  only  demonstrated  its  powerlessness  to  civilise  the  countries 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  Lower  Congo,  its  sovereignty  over  which  is 
not  disputed  by  any  European  state? 

London,  November  21,  1883. 

ARGUMENT  OF  PROFESSOR  EGIDE  ARNTZ 

Can  independent  chiefs  of  savage  tribes  cede  to  private  citizens  the 
whole  or  part  of  their  states,  with  the  sovereign  rights  which  pertain 
to  them,  conformably  to  the  traditional  customs  of  the  country? 

This  question,  as  it  is  propounded,  presents  two  aspects.  It  must 
be  considered : 

I.     From  the  point  of  view  of  the  right  of  the  one  who  cedes. 
II.     From  the  point  of  view  of  the  one  to  whom  the  cession  is  made. 


In  examining  this  question  from  the  standpoint  of  international  law, 
we  must  first  ask  if  the  chiefs  of  savage  tribes  can,  generally,  make 
treaties,  conventions,  cessions  of  territories;  in  other  words,  if  the 
tribes  which  they  represent  are  considered  as  states,  having  the 
capacity  to  make  international  treaties,  which  would  be  respected  as 
such  by  all  civilised  or  non-civilised  nations. 

From  the  fifteenth  century  till  early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
rules  of  international  law  were  regarded  as  being  to  some  extent  an 
exclusive  privilege  of  Christian  peoples,  for  the  establishment  of  regular 
relations  between  them.  With  regard  to  pagan  peoples,  they  were  not 
considered  as  participating  in  the  political  community  which  interna- 
tional law  established  between  Christians;  and  it  was  only  by  Article 
VII.  of  the  treaty  of  Paris  of  the  30th  of  March,  1856,  that  the  Sub- 
lime Porte  was  admitted  "to  participate  in  the  advantages  of  the 
European  concert." 

We  can  easily  understand  that  Christian  nations  could  not  admit  to 
participation  in  the  advantages  of  international  law  the  people  of 
nations  who  did  not  recognise  this  law  as  binding  upon  themselves, 
and  who  did  not  practise  its  precepts.  Publicists  and  moralists  teach 
that  in  their  relations  with  pagan  and  savage  populations.  Christian 
sovereigns  should  always  conduct  themselves  honestly,  and  observe 
the  rules  of  justice,  equity,  and  Christian  morality. 

It  would  be  too  long  to  enter  here  into  the  details  of  the  discussions 
which  the  authors  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  had  on  the 
subject  of  the  conduct  of  European  nations  in  regard  to  the  Indians. 
We  shall  limit  ourselves  to  saying  that  the  relations  of  the  states  of 


Appendix  517 

Europe  with  other  nations  had  no  fixed  rules,  that  they  varied  much, 
according  to  the  power  and  importance  of  the  foreign  nations,  accord- 
ing to  the  communications  more  or  less  niimerous  which  Europeans  had 
with  them,  and  according  to  the  manners  and  customs  practised  by 
them.' 

Thanks  to  the  progress  of  hiunanitarian  ideas,  of  a  better  practice  of 
Christian  morality,  and  the  greater  influence  of  principles  of  interna- 
tional justice,  feeble  people,  almost  savage,  although  not  possessed  of 
the  benefits  of  civilisation,  are  no  longer  considered  in  our  days,  as  de- 
stined to  serve  as  a  mine  for  civilised  nations  to  "work."  All  those 
having  a  human  face,  turned  towards  the  heavens,  are  considered  as 
members  of  the  great  htunan  family,  children  of  the  common  Father, 
animated  by  the  same  Divine  breath,  having  the  same  destiny  to  ac- 
complish, and  meriting  the  respect  due  to  human  dignity. 

These  ideas  have  prevailed  with  jurisconsults  and  publicists,  have 
permeated  their  doctrines,  and  happily  have  guided  their  practices. 
Savage  tribes,  although  living  in  very  imperfect  communities,  as  well 
as  their  territories,  are  no  longer  regarded  to-day  as  things  without  a 
master,  and  belonging  to  the  first  occupier,  that  is,  to  the  first  comer 
stronger  than  themselves.  Want  of  civilisation  can  no  longer  serve 
as  a  pretext  to  ci\'ilised  nations  to  put  them  under  subjection,  or  to 
control  them  by  violence. 

The  law  of  nations  is  a  science  still  imperfectly  moulded  or  stereo- 
typed, and  especially  is  it  a  science  which  ought  not  to  be,  and  #annot 
be,  formulated  a  priori.  Its  fundamental  principle  is,  no  doubt,  phi- 
losophy, but  it  has  its  positive  base  in  the  facts  of  history  and  authori- 
tative doctrine. 

What  are  the  conditions  to  enable  a  state  to  exist,  as  such,  and  to 
qualify  it  to  treat? 

"A  certain  number  of  men  and  families,  who,  being  united,  in  a 
country,  and  having  fixed  their  abode  there,  associate  and  submit 
themselves  to  a  common  chief,  with  the  intention  of  providing  for  the 
safety  of  all,  form  a  state,"  says  Kluber,^  and  to  the  same  effect  says 
G.  F.  Von  Marten.  3 

"Sovereignty  [continues  Kliiber  4]  in  this  extended  sense  consists  in 
the  ensemble  of  rights  belonging  to  a  state,  independent  as  regards  its 

'Heffter,  par.  7,  p.  14:  "With  respect  to  non-Christian  states,  which 
are  not  yet  regularly  admitted  into  the  bosom  of  the  European  family, 
the  application  of  the  same  law  is  entirely  free,  and  founded  upon 
a  purely  conventional  reciprocity.  Relations  with  them  are  formed 
according  to  the  exigencies  of  policy  and  morality." 

'  Droit  de  gens  tnoderne,  p'ar.  20. 

3  Einleitung  in  das  positive  eiiropaische  Volkerrecht,  Gottingen,  1796, 
p.  I. 

4  Droit  des  gens  moderne,  par.  21. 


5i8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

object.  It  comprises,  first,  the  entire  independence  of  the  state  in 
the  face  of  foreign  nations;  second,  legitimate  power  of  the  Govern- 
ment or  of  the  authority  which  the  purpose  of  the  state  demands." 

The  same  author  says  '  : 

"Sovereignty  is  acquired  by  a  state  either  at  its  foundation  or  when  it 
separates  itself  legitimately  from  the  dependence  under  which  it  was.  To 
be  valid,  it  does  not  need  to  be  recognised  or  guaranteed  by  any  foreign 
power  whatever,  provided  its  possession  is  not  faulty  (vicieuse)." 

It  is  useless  to  multiply  extracts.  The  principles  summarised  by 
Kluber  on  the  sovereignty,  the  independence,  and  the  equality  of 
states,  from  the  legal  point  of  view,  are  equally  professed  by  all  au- 
thors. We  will  limit  ourselves  to  the  following:  Heffter,  par.  15,  16, 
pp.  32-34;  par.  23,  pp.  42,  43;  par.  26,  27,  pp.  47-49.  Wheaton, 
vol.  i.,  pp.  32,  43.  Vattel,  lib.  i.,  chap,  i.,  sec.  4.  W.  E.  Hall,  Inter- 
national Law,  par.  2,  4,  pp.  16-20;  par.  6-8,  pp.  34-37;  par.  9,  10,  pp. 
39-42.     Calvo,  Droit  international,  par.  39-41,  pp.   143-147. 

Tribes  inhabiting  determined  territory,  represented  by  their  chiefs, 
form,  therefore,  independent  states. 

From  this  the  first  consequence  is  that  the  territories  which  they 
occupy  are  not  things  without  masters  (res  nullius),  and  cannot  be 
occupied  by  other  states.  It  is  only  territories  without  master,  that 
is  to  say,  upon  which  no  sovereign  power  is  yet  established,  that  can 
be  the  object  of  occupation. 

As  regards  the  right  of  occupation,  see  the  following  authors : 

"Christian  people  cannot  rightfully  take  possession  of  lands  which 
savages  already  really  occupy,"  says  George  Frederick  von  Marten. 2 

Kluber  3  says :  "A  state  can  acquire  things  which  belong  to  no  one 
{res  nullius)  by  occupation  {original) ,  and  the  goods  of  others  by  means 
of  conventions  (derivative  occupation)  ...  In  order  that  the 
occupation  may  be  legitimate,  the  thing  itself  should  be  susceptible  of 
exclusive  property  and  belong  to  no  one.  (A)  The  state  should  have 
the  intention  of  acquiring  the  property  thereof." 

In  the  note  (A)  the  author  says:  "Property  thus  is  acquired  right- 
fully by  an  occupation  without  flaw;  it  is  preserved  by  continuous 
possession.  In  consequence  no  nation  is  authorised,  no  matter  what 
its  pretensions,  especially  if  of  a  higher  degree  of  culture,  to  seize  upon 
the  property  of  another  nation.  It  cannot  even  take  it  from  savages 
or  nomads." 

The  author  cites  in  support  of  this,  Gunther,  Vdlkerrecht,  vol.  ii.,  p. 
lo  et  seq.  See  also  the  beautiful  and  energetic  passage  from  Heffter, 
Le  droit  international  public,  vol.  i.,  par.  70,  pp.  141,  142:  "Droit 
d'Occupation. " 

^  Droit  des  gens  moderne,  par.  23. 

^  Einleitung  in  das  positive  europaische  Volkerrecht,  par.  31. 

3  Droit  des  gens  moderne  de  V Europe,  par.  25. 


Appendix  519 

To  give  validity  of  occupation  it  is  necessary  that  the  property  should 
be  without  master,  and  that  the  intention  to  acquire  the  domain 
should  be  joined  to  the  fact  of  an  effective  taking  possession.  Let  us 
examine  each  of  the  three  conditions: 

I.  Occupation  is  only  to  be  applied  to  property  which,  although 
susceptible  of  being  possessed,  has  no  master.  It  does  not  extend  to 
persons,  who  can  only  be  the  object  of  a  submission,  whether  voluntary 
or  forced.  Occupation  is  to  be  applied  notably  to  countries  and 
islands  uninhabited  or  not  entirely  occupied;  but  no  power  on  earth 
has  the  right  to  impose  its  laws  upon  wandering  or  even  savage  peoples. 
Its  subjects  can  seek  to  establish  commercial  relations  with  these 
latter,  can  remain  among  them,  in  case  of  necessity  can  demand  of 
them  indispensable  articles  of  provisions,  and  even  negotiate  with 
them  the  voluntary  cession  of  a  portion  of  the  territory,  with  the 
object  of  colonising  it.  Nature,  it  is  true,  does  not  forbid  nations  to 
extend  their  empire  upon  the  earth;  but  it  does  not  give  the  right  to 
a  single  one  among  them  to  establish  its  dominion  anywhere  wherever 
it  chooses  to  do  it.  The  propaganda  of  civilisation,  the  development  of 
commercial  and  industrial  interests,  the  putting  into  activity  of  un- 
productive values,  do  not  justify  it  either.  All  that  can  be  accorded 
on  the  subject  is,  that  in  the  interest  of  the  preservation  of  the  human 
kind,  it  may  be  permitted  to  nations  to  unite  in  order  to  open  by 
common  accord  the  ports  of  a  country  hermetically  sealed  to  their 
commerce. 

See,  to  the  same  effect,  Bluntschli,  Droits  des  gens,  codifie,  par.  20, 

P-  ^3-  .         .      . 

Similar  citations  could  be  multiplied. 

Communities  of  non-civilised  tribes,  forming  according  to  the  law  of 
nations,  as  to-day  admitted,  independent  states,  the  first  logical  con- 
sequence which  follows  is  that  these  states  cannot  be  acquired  by 
reason  of  occupation  by  other  states.  A  second  consequence  which 
necessarily  follows  from  the  same  premises  is,  that  these  states,  or  their 
chiefs,  can  make  international  treaties  of  every  kind — treaties  which 
have  obligatory  force  for  the  contracting  parties,  and  which  should  be 
respected  by  all  other  states,  if  they  do  not  interfere  with  existing 
rights. 

We  would  remark  here,  with  Calvo,'  that  "international  treaties 
may  be  concluded,  even  with  nomadic  peoples,  having  no  territory  of 
their  own  nor  fixed  domicile,  when  they  have  an  expressed  political 
organisation  and  a  common  council  by  the  intennediary  of  their  chiefs 
or  their  assemblies."  "In  this  category  [adds  the  same  author]  may 
be  classed  the  Bedouins,  scattered  over  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  Syria, 

'  See  Charles  Calvo,  Manuel  du  droit  international  public  et  privi, 
par.  49,  p.  85;  also  his  Droit  international  theoriqu£  et  pratique,  vol.  i., 
p.  320. 


520         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Egypt,  and  barbarous  Africa,  and  the  Turcomans,  who  wander  over 
the  plains  of  Central  Asia." 

"There  are  conglomerated  populations  which  do  not  compose  a 
state.  .  .  .  But  the  nomads  and  the  savages  have,  either  among 
themselves  or  with  civilised  people,  an  international  law  which  is  ob- 
served equally  with  the  international  law  of  civilised  nations,"  say 
Funck,  Brentano,  and  Sorel.' 

By  still  stronger  reasoning  the  tribes  composing  states  dwelling  in 
determined  territory  can  make  international  treaties.  Savage  African 
tribes,  possessing  determined  territories,  can  make  all  kinds  of  treaties. 
Their  chiefs  can  therefore  cede  territory,  in  whole  or  in  part,  to  whom, 
we  will  see  under  No.  2.  This  rule,  or  rather  this  consequence,  cannot 
be  impeached  in  theory. 

"Sovereignty  of  a  state,  in  the  sense  of  international  law  [says 
Kliiber,  Droits  des  gens  m,oderne  de  V Europe,  p.  22],  consists  essentially 
in  independence  of  all  foreign  control  in  relation  to  the  exercise  of 
rights  of  sovereignty;  it  ought  by  its  nature  even  to  be  exercised  in- 
dependently of  the  antiquity  of  the  state,  or  the  form  of  its  constitu- 
tion of  government,  or  the  order  established  for  the  succession  to  the 
throne,  or  the  rank,  title,  or  state  of  its  sovereign;  of  the  extent  of  its 
territory;  of  its  population,  political  importance,  manners,  religion, 
state  of  culture  in  general,  the  commerce  of  its  inhabitants,"  etc. 

And  the  same  author,  par.  127,  says: 

"In  regard  to  public  domain,  the  state  has,  over  the  things  which 
form  part  thereof,  all  rights  of  property,  not  only  of  exclusive  posses- 
sion and  the  right  to  enjoy  it  as  owner,  but  also  that  of  disposing 
freely  thereof.  The  conventions  or  arrangements  which  it  may  make 
in  this  respect,  whether  with  its  subjects  or  with  foreigners,  are  abso- 
lutely independent  of  other  Governments.  Nothing  forbids  it  alienat- 
ing its  property,  its  putting  it  in  pledge,  or  abandoning  it.  It  has  the 
capacity  to  acquire  by  accession."  ^ 

Without  going  back  to  antiquity,  modern  history,  since  the  seven- 
teenth century  up  to  our  own  days,  furnishes  us  numerous  examples 
of  treaties,  of  cessions  of  territories,  etc.,  concluded  between  civilised 
states  on  the  one  hand  and  savage  tribes  on  the  other.  It  is  sufficient 
to  recall  the  most  noted  cases: 

In  1620  the  English  Puritans  embarked  on  board  the  Mayflower, 
after  establishing  themselves  in  the  northern  part  of  Virginia,  con- 
cluded with  the  chief  or  sachem  of  the  Indians,  Massasoit,  a  treaty  of 
friendship,  the  most  ancient  treaty  concluded  by  New  England.3 

In  1639  the  founders  of  the  colony  of  New  Hampshire  concluded 

^Precis  du  droit  des  gens,  Paris,  1877,  No.  X.,  p.  23. 

2  See  on  this  point.  International  Law,  by  Edward  W.  Hall,  M.A., 
barrister-at-law,  Oxford,  1880,  par.  35,  p.  100. 

3  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i. ,  pjj.  342-350. 


Appendix  521 

with  the  Indians  conventions  for  the  purchase  of  land  situated  between 
the  Piscataqua  and  the  Merrimac,  and  there  estabUshed  the  town  of 
Exeter.^ 

Later,  William  Penn  made  treaties  with  chiefs  of  Indians.  It  is 
useless  to  cite  here  the  numerous  treaties  between  the  different  States 
of  New  England  and  the  chiefs  of  Indian  tribes. 

Wheaton  ^  recounts  that  some  of  these  Indian  tribes  have  recog- 
nised by  conventions  that  they  held  their  existence  entirely  at  the  will 
of  the  State  within  the  limits  of  which  they  resided,  and  that  others 
preserved  a  limited  sovereignty  and  the  absolute  dominion  of  the  ter- 
ritory inhabited  by  them ;  and  he  adds  that  by  two  decisions  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  1831  and  1832,  the  Cherokee 
Nation,  residing  within  the  limits  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  are  held  to 
constitute  a  distinct  political  society ;  that  numerous  treaties  made  by 
this  nation  with  the  United  States  recognise  it  as  a  people  capable  of 
maintaining  relations  of  peace  and  war;  that  the  English  Government, 
having  preceded  the  United  States,  bought  their  lands  by  contracts  of 
sale,  freely  assented  to,  and  never  forced  them  to  make  sale  against 
their  will. 

Let  us  pass  from  America  to  Africa  and  Asia.  In  the  course  of  the 
last  fifty  years  England  has  concluded  with  the  chiefs  of  countries 
adjacent  to  the  Congo  thirteen  treaties,  of  which  we  mention  specially 
two,  one  concluded  the  nth  of  February,  1853,  with  the  King  and 
chiefs  of  Cabinda,  the  other  concluded  the  20th  June,  1854,  with  divers 
chiefs  of  the  river  Congo. 

The  treaty  concluded  by  M.  Savorgnan  de  Brazza  with  the  King 
Makoko  is  of  public  notoriety. 

To  terminate  the  series  of  historical  documents  in  support  of  the 
theory  that  chiefs  of  savage  tribes  can  validly  make  treaties  and  ces- 
sions of  territories  in  full  sovereignty,  let  us  recall  further  the  recent 
treaties  of  the  2gth  of  December,  1877,  and  the  22nd  of  January,  1878, 
by  which  the  Sultans  of  Brunei  and  of  Sulu,  in  the  island  of  Borneo, 
ceded  a  part  of  their  territory  to  Mr.  Alfred  Dent  and  Baron  Overbeck. 

If,  from  the  point  of  view  of  international  law,  it  is  indisputable  that 
no  state,  civilised  or  not,  has  the  right  to  arbitrarily  trouble  the  chiefs 
of  savage  tribes  in  the  possession  of  their  sovereignty,  the  same  pro- 
liibition  applies  to  those  to  whom  they  have  conceded,  whoever  they 
may  be. 

The  cessionnaires  have  the  same  rights  as  the  ceders.  Under  what 
pretext  could  another  state  trouble  them?  Their  cession  is  valid,  and 
thus  all  motive,  or  even  all  pretext  for  trouble  is  wanting;  or,  the  ces- 
sion is  null,  according  to  the  law  of  nations,  and  then  the  sovereign 
who  made  the  cession  has,  in  right,  preserved  all  his  sovereignty,  and 

^  Carlicr,  History  of  the  American  People,  vol   i.,  p.  300. 
?  Elements  of  Intcrnalioual  Law  (Fr.  tr.),  vol.  i.,  p.  50. 


522  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

no  other  state  has  the  right  to  trouble  it,  or  even  to  interA-ene  to  make 
good  the  nullity  of  the  cession, 

II 

Let  us  take  the  second  question.  Can  a  cession  be  made  to  a  private 
citizen  ? 

We  are  happy  to  be  able  to  abridge  this  part  of  our  work  by  referring 
to  the  article,  "The  Free  Navigation  of  the  Congo,"  published  by  our 
eminent  colleague  of  the  Institute,  Sir  Travers  Twiss,  in  the  sixth 
number  of  the  Revue  du  droit  international  for  1883. 

It  is  true  that  Sir  Travers  Twiss  occupies  himself  with  the  question 
whether  those  associations  which  are  not  organised  as  States  can  exer- 
cise sovereign  rights,  rather  than  whether  these  rights  of  sovereignty 
can  be  conceded  to  private  individuals;  but  the  argument  which  he 
invokes  in  support  of  his  thesis  applies  in  great  part  to  cessions  made 
to  individuals. 

When  writers  establish  their  point  of  departure  to  arrive  at  a  demon- 
stration they  commence  often  by  saying : 

"It  is  an  established  principle,"  etc.  Or,  "It  is  a  principle  of  law," 
etc.  And  they  employ  this  form  when  their  principles  are  the  most 
contestable.  In  the  article  we  have  just  cited,  Sir  Travers  Twiss  men- 
tions an  article  in  the  Revue  de  geographie  of  Paris,'  in  which  Mr.  Dela- 
vand  says:  "It  is  a  principle  of  law  that  states  alone  can  exercise 
sovereign  rights,  and  that  no  private  company  can  have  them."  He 
(Sir  Travers  Twiss)  adds,  with  reason,  that  this  proposition  is  affirmed 
in  too  absolute  a  manner,  and  he  proves  conclusively  by  historical 
facts  that  his  criticism  is  just. 

Doubtless  an  individual,  as  such,  and  a  private  society,  in  that 
capacity,  are  not  sovereigns,  and  exercise  no  act  of  sovereignty.  This 
needs  no  demonstration.  But,  in  virtue  of  what  principle  of  inter- 
national law  is  it  sought  to  be  shown  that  one  who  is  a  private  citizen 
to-day  cannot  become  a  sovereign  to-morrow,  and  be  in  possession  of 
the  plenitude  of  sovereignty?  Such  a  principle  does  not  exist.  No 
author  of  international  law  has  ever  sustained  it,  and  all  the  history  of 
humanity,  from  the  earliest  down  to  modem  times,  denies  it. 

Individuals  can  become  sovereigns,  and  exercise  the  rights  of  sovereigns, 
in  two  ways: 

First.  By  creating  themselves  into  a  state — that  is  to  say,  by 
establishing  themselves  upon  a  territory  which  belongs  to  them,  and 
forming  themselves  into  a  community  with  a  regular  government,  and 
legal  organs  of  public  power — in  a  word,  with  all  the  constituent  ele- 
ments of  a  state. 

Most  of  the  states   of   antiquity,  according  to  legends  and  tradi- 

'  Vol.  xii.,  p.  12. 


Appendix  52; 


tions,  or  positive  historical  information,  have  been  created  in  no  other 
way. 

The  states  of  the  Middle  Ages  had  the  same  origin.  The  Franks, 
the  Visigoths,  the  Ostrogoths,  the  Burgundians,  and  others,  were  only 
nomadic  peoples,  composed  of  chiefs  who,  in  the  eyes  of  international 
law,  were  only  individuals,  but  who  founded  states. 

The  Italian  republics  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  only  municipalities 
without  international  sovereignty,  and  they  have  become  sovereign 
states.  Simple  individuals,  poor  fishermen,  caused  the  republic  of 
Venice  to  rise  from  the  waves  of  the  Adriatic  and  to  become  its 
queen. 

Almost  all  the  States  of  New  England,  in  America,  have  been 
founded  by  individuals.^ 

States,  to  exist,  have  no  need  to  be  recognised  by  other  states. 
Those  who  have  founded  them  are  the  sovereigns,  and  therefore  have 
the  right  to  exercise  the  rights  of  sovereignty  in  so  far  as  this  exercise 
has  not  been  delegated  to  an  authority  instituted  mider  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  state. 

And  a  revolution  which  has  for  result  the  detaching  from  a  state  of 
one  of  its  parts,  is  it  not  at  the  commencement  the  work  of  individuals? 
And  those  individuals,  if  they  unite  themselves  in  their  enterprise,  can 
erect  a  simple  province  or  provinces  into  a  new  and  sovereign  state, 
and  exercise  then  sovereign  rights. 

And  if  to-day,  simple  individuals  should  establish  themselves  on  a 
desert  island,  or  on  territory  unoccupied  by  another  state,  they  can 
establish  a  new  state,  with  all  the  rights  of  sovereignty.  We  have 
seen  Texas  thus  formed. 

Second.  An  individual  can  become  sovereign  by  succeeding  to  an- 
other sovereign  in  the  exercise  of  the  sovereignty  of  a  state.  From  a 
private  individual  he  becomes  a  sovereign. 

The  question  whether  a  private  individual  can  accept  a  sovereignty 
when  the  interior  laws  of  his  state  forbid  him  is  outside  of  our  subject, 
and  we  do  not  treat  of  it. 

Philip,  Duke  of  Anjou,  great-grandson  of  Louis  XIV.,  was,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  international  law,  a  simple  individual.  After  the 
death  of  Charles  II.,  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  the  states  belonging  to 
the  Crown  of  Spain  were  dismembered,  and  Philip  V.  was  recognised 
as  the  King  of  Spain,  and  acquired  part  of  the  states  of  the  Spanish 
monarchy.     Other  examples  might  be  cited. 

When  a  prince  was  elected  King  of  Germany  he  became  a  sovereign 
from  a  private  individual  that  he  was. 

Or,  again,  when  a  chief  of  an  African  tribe,  forming  a  sovereign 
state,  cedes  to  an  individual  in  full  sovereignty  a  part  of  his  state,  does 
he  do  other  than  to  call  another  person  to  the  exercise  of  rights  of 

'  See  the  histories  of  Bancroft  and  Carlier. 


524  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

sovereignty  over  one  part  of  his  state,  erected  into  a  new  state?  What 
difference  is  there  between  the  case  of  a  European  prince  who  is  called 
as  sovereign  to  a  state,  or  part  of  a  state,  and  that  where  an  African 
chief  calls  upon  an  individual  to  exercise  sovereign  powers  over  part 
of  his  state?  In  the  fact  undovibtedly  there  is  much  difiference,  but  in 
law  there  is  none;  and  that  is  the  qttestion.  It  is  a  question  of  law 
{droit)  we  have  to  study  here. 

It  is  even  possible  that  an  individual  may  remain  a  subject  of  the 
state  to  which  he  belongs,  and  may  be  the  sovereign  of  another  country. 
The  sovereign,  therefore,  can  have  a  double  personality.  Thus, 
Ernest  Augustus,  and  George  V.,  Dukes  of  Cumberland,  were  subjects 
of  Queen  Victoria  and  peers  of  England  and  at  the  same  time  Kings  of 
Hanover.  In  1787  the  sovereign  bishop  of  the  principality  of  Osna- 
bruck,  the  Duke  of  York,  sat  as  a  peer  of  England  in  the  House  of 
Lords.' 

The  question  which  has  been  laid  down  at  the  head  of  this  opinion 
is  a  novel  one.  It  has  not  been  foreseen  or  treated  in  works  of  inter- 
national law.  Many  authors  treat  a  question  which  touches  upon 
this  one,  but  which  differs  from  it  a  good  deal.  They  ask  if  an  indi- 
vidual can  make  in  his  own  name  an  act  of  occupation  of  a  territory 
newly  discovered  without  a  master.  They  reply  negatively  to  this 
question,  and,  in  their  line  of  ideas,  they  are  right;  for  those  who  dis- 
cover new  territories  are  almost  always  navigators,  travelling  in  a 
public  ship,  often  public  officers  or  individuals  commissioned  by  their 
governments — agents  of  the  government — and  they  cannot  occupy 
in  their  own  name. 

A  recent  event  furnishes  a  powerful  support  to  the  theory  that 
rights  of  sovereignty  can  be  ceded  to  individuals,  namely,  the  treaty 
between  the  Sultans  of  Borneo  and  Sulu  and  Mr.  Dent  and  Baron 
Overbeck,  who,  in  their  turn,  have  ceded  their  rights  to  a  private 
British  company,  the  "British  North  Borneo  Company."  This 
fact  has  importance  in  itself,  as  a  new  event  which  enlarges 
juridical  science;  but  what  especially  gives  strong  support  to  our 
thesis  is  the  manner  in  which  this  event  has  been  appreciated,  be 
it  inferentially  or  explicitly,  by  several  governments,  by  jurisconsults, 
and  by  eminent  statesmen  whose  opinions  can  be  invoked  as  having 
authority. 

The  opinions  of  jurisconsults  and  publicists  are  ranged  among  the 
sources  of  international  law.^ 

In  the  first  place,  the  Governments  of  Holland  and  of  Spain,  who 
believed  themselves  most  directly  affected  by  the  concessions,  ac- 
corded by  the  two  Sultans  of  Borneo,  did  not  den}''  the  principle  of  the 
capacity  of  individuals  or  of  associations  to  have  ceded  to  them  rights 

*  Heffter,  Le  droit  international  piihlique,  par.  52,  p.  104. 

*  Wheaton,  vol.  i.,  par.  12,  p.  25;    Heffter,  par.  8,  p.  16. 


Appendix  525 

of  sovereignty,  but  they  raised  reclamations  against  these  treaties  by 
invoking  rights  previously  acquired. 

Let  us  reproduce  here  the  passage  written  by  M.  de  Lave le ye  upon 
the  discussion  to  which  the  giving  of  a  charter  of  incorporation  to  the 
British  North  Borneo  Company  gave  rise  in  the  English  Parlia- 
ment ^ : 

"Certain  members  of  the  left,  adversaries  of  what  is  called  in  Eng- 
land the  imperial  policy,  that  is  to  say  of  the  policy  which  seeks  ex- 
tension of  territory  and  of  influence,  criticised  the  measure  because 
it  created  a  new  responsibility  for  the  country;  but  no  one  contested 
the  right  of  individuals  or  of  the  company — rights  resulting  from 
treaties  concluded  with  indigenous  chiefs.  In  the  reply  made  in  the 
House  of  Commons  by  the  attorney-general,  Sir  Henry  James,  we 
read: 

"'  These  rights  were  conceded  to  the  company  and  became  legally  its 
property.  The  Government  of  Her  Majesty  had  no  power  to  enter 
into  a  general  examination  of  the  propriety  of  the  occupation  of 
Borneo  by  a  commercial  company.  It  would  have  been  an  act  of  con- 
fiscation if,  after  what  had  happened,  the  Government  had  interfered, 
and  had  endeavoured  to  take  from  it  the  rights  which  it  had  acquired. 
The  only  thing  the  Government  had  to  decide  was  whether  or 
not  it  was  necessary  to  leave  the  company  to  act  without  impediment 
and  entirely  without  control.' 

"Mr.  Gladstone  was  not  less  affirmative.  Said  he,  at  the  same 
sitting: 

"  'The  charter  has  not  conferred  upon  the  company  a  single  privilege 
above  and  beyond  what  it  had  already  acquired  by  virtue  of  a  title 
sufficient  to  enable  it  to  exercise  all  these  powers.' 


"From  the  explanations  given  by  Lord  Granville  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  the  13th  March,  1882,  it  appears  that  if  Holland  and  Spain 
have  protested  against  the  rights  invoked  by  the  Overbeck-Dent  Com- 
pany, it  was  because  of  anterior  rights  which  these  states  pretend  to 
have  over  the  northern  part  of  Borneo;  but,  no  more  than  Germany, 
formally  consulted  in  the  matter  by  the  British  Government,  have 
they  raised  any  doubt  as  to  the  capacity  of  indi\-iduals  and  companies 
to  obtain  from  non-civilised  sovereigns  the  cession  of  rights  implying 
the  exercise  of  sovereignty.  This  capacity  also  was  not  denied  by  the 
members  on  the  opposition  side  of  the  House  of  Commons." 

Thus,  the  opinion  of  four  Governments,  the  opinion  of  two  English 
ministers,  Lord  Granville  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  of  the  attorney- 
general,  Sir  Henry  James,  that  of  Sir  Travers  Twiss,  and  of  M.  de 
Lavelcye,  to  which  we  would  add  the  considerations  developed  in  the 

■  Revue  de  droit  international,  vol.  xi.,  pp.  258,  259. 


526  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

open  letter  addressed,  the  23d  April,  1883,  by  a  member  of  the  African 
International  Association  to  the  Courrier  des  Etats-Unis,  form  an 
assemblage  of  authorities  of  a  nature  to  fortify  us  in  our  conviction  if 
we  had  any  doubts. 

We  conclude  with  these  observations: 

1.  It  is  evident  that  if  some  powers  have  raised  against  similar 
concessions,  made  by  chiefs  of  savage  tribes  to  individuals  and  associa- 
tions, reclamations  founded  upon  rights  previously  acquired,  there 
would  be  ground  to  submit  these  pretensions  to  serious  examination, 
or  perhaps  they  might  be  submitted  to  arbitration,  as  Great  Britain 
and  Portugal,  in  1875,  submitted  to  the  arbitration  of  the  President  of 
the  French  Republic,  M.  MacMahon,  the  contest  in  regard  to  certain 
lands  situated  on  the  bay  of  Delagoa. 

2.  New  sovereignties,  at  the  head  of  which  are  individuals  or  associa- 
tions, the  concessionaries  of  the  chiefs  of  savage  tribes,  exist  of  them- 
selves, of  their  own  right  and  their  own  strength,  without  having  need  of 
the  recognition  of  other  States.  (See  Kliiber,  par.  24;  Hefifter,  par.  23, 
p.  42,  and  par.  51,  p.  104;  Bluntschli,  pars.  28  and  38;  and  all  the 
authors.) 

It  depends  upon  the  convenance  of  other  States  to  recognise  or  not 
to  recognise  these  new  sovereignties.  But  whatever  may  be  their 
determination  in  this  respect,  the  want  of  recognition  does  not  give 
them  the  right  to  act  as  if  these  sovereignties  did  not  exist,  and  to 
consider  their  territories  susceptible  of  occupation. 

3.  According  to  the  practice  of  international  law,  at  this  day,  the 
recognition  of  one  to  whom  sovereignty  has  been  conceded,  as  a  sover- 
eign, can  even  follow  of  itself,  in  certain  cases.  Almost  all  govern- 
ments, especially  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  of  America  ^ 
have  adopted  the  rule  of  considering  de  facto  governments  as  legitimate, 
as  far  as  they  themselves  are  concerned.  (See  Heffter,  pars.  51,  53, 
pp.  101-105.) 

Let  us  suppose  a  European  nation  had  concluded  a  treaty  of  friend- 
ship or  commerce  with  the  chief  of  a  savage  tribe,  inhabiting  a  fixed 
territory.  This  treaty  is  supposed  to  be  concluded,  and  is  effectively 
concluded  with  the  State  which  the  chief  represents.  The  chief  had 
ceded  his  rights  of  sovereignty  to  a  European  individual  or  a  European 
association,  who  are  put  in  real  possession  of  the  sovereignty.  Could 
the  European  nation  deny  the  legitimacy  of  this  new  Government  if  it 
was  a  government  de  facto,  according  to  international  usages?  No. 
At  least,  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  would  recognise  it,  and 
probably  other  States  also.  And  if  the  preceding  chief  had  been  dis- 
placed by  internal  revolution — which  can  break  out  among  blacks  as 
among  whites — and  if  the  black  chief  had  ceded  his  sovereignty  to 
another  Negro,  a  relation  or  even  a  stranger  to  his  family,  would  that 

*  See  manifesto  of  President  Monroe,  of  December  2,  1823. 


Appendix  527 

be  a  reason  for  refusing  recognition  to  the  new  sovereign?  And  if  the 
chief  of  the  tribe  had  ceded  his  sovereignty  to  a  white  man,  in  place  of 
choosing  for  his  successor  a  black  man,  or  an  association  composed  of 
whites,  certainly  the  difference  of  colour  could  not  be  a  reason  for  refus- 
ing recognition  to  the  new  sovereign. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  in  wandering  away  from  true  and  simple  prin- 
ciples difficulties  of  every  kind  are  encountered. 

Therefore  I  am  of  opinion  that  independent  chiefs  of  savage  tribes 
can  validly  cede  to  a  private  individual  the  whole  or  part  of  their 
State,  with  the  sovereign  rights  which  belong  to  them,  and  conformably 
to  the  traditional  customs  of  the  country. 

Brussels,  December  15,  1S83. 

OTHER  AUTHORITIES  CITED 

(Extract  from  the  Droit  international  codifie,  by  M.  Bluntschli.) 

(Page  68,  paragraph  35)  :  A  new  State  has  the  right  to  enter  into  the 
international  association  of  States,  and  to  be  recognised  by  other 
powers  when  its  existence  cannot  be  put  in  doubt  and  is  assvired.  It 
has  the  right  because  it  exists,  because  international  law  unites  existing 
States  by  common  laws  and  principles  based  upon  justice  and  humanity. 

Recognition  by  other  sovereign  States  is  a  voluntary  act  on  a  part 
of  these  latter.  It  is  not,  nevertheless,  an  absolutely  arbitrary  act, 
because  international  law  unites,  even  against  their  will,  diverse 
existing  States,  and  makes  of  them  a  kind  of  political  association. 

The  opinion  is  frequently  advanced  by  the  older  publicists  that  it 
depends  upon  the  good  pleasure  of  each  State  to  recognise  or  not  to 
recognise  another,  outside  of  the  necessary  and  absolute  line  of  inter- 
national law.  If  this  law  rested  solely  upon  the  arbitrary  will  of 
States,  it  would  not  be  just  that  it  should  be  simply  a  conventional  law. 

(Page  164):  A  State  has  evidently  the  right  to  constitute  itself 
without  the  ratification  of  another  State.  This  would  be  the  case 
when  emigrants,  for  example,  found  a  State  upon  an  uninhabited 
island,  as  did  the  Norwegians  in  Iceland  in  the  middle  ages.  A  num- 
ber of  new  States  of  North  America  were  founded  by  individuals; 
it  was  only  later  that  they  were  recognised  by  England,  and  to  this 
day  they  proceed  in  the  same  manner  in  the  United  States.  If  new 
states  can  in  this  way  constitute  themselves,  by  still  stronger  rea- 
soning analogous  extensions  of  territory  already  existing  should  be 
recognised. 

ANOTHER  MANNER  OF  ACQUIRING  THE  SOVEREIGNTY 
OF  A  FREE  COUNTRY 

(From  Vattcl,  Le  droit  des  gens,  vol.  i.,  page  489,  par.  206.) 

If  free  families,  scattered  over  an  independent  country,  unite  to 
form  themselves  into  a  nation  or  a  State,  they  acquire  the  sovereignty 


528  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

over  the  whole  State  which  they  inhabit,  for  they  possess  already  the 
domain;  and  since  they  wish  to  form  a  political  society  and  to  estab- 
lish a  public  authority  to  which  all  will  owe  obedience,  it  is  quite  mani- 
fest that  their  intention  is  to  confer  upon  this  public  authority  the 
right  of  sovereignty  of  the  whole  country. 

(From  Heffter,  Le  droit  international  publique  de  V Europe.) 
(Pages  32  and  33):  The  existence  of  a  state  supposes  the  following 
conditions,  to  wit: 

I.  A  society  capable  of  existing  by  itself  and  independently. 

II.  A  collective  will  regularly  organised,  or  a  public  authority 
charged  with  the  direction  of  society  for  the  end  which  we  have  just 
indicated. 

III.  A  permanent  status  of  society,  the  natural  base  of  a  free  and 
permanent  development,  and  which  depends  essentially  on  the  fixity 
of  the  tenure  of  real  estate  and  the  intellectual  and  moral  tendencies 
of  its  members. 

We  regard  as  idle  the  questions  discussed  by  the  schools,  such  as, 
What  is  the  number  of  persons  necessary  to  form  a  state  ?  or,  If  one  or 
three  persons  are  sufficient?  The  distinctive  characteristics  of  a  state 
which  we  have  just  indicated  sufficiently  answer  these  questions. 

(Page  42) :  A  state  exists  de  facto  so  soon  as  it  unites  the  necessary 
elements  indicated  above;  that  is  to  say,  will,  imited  to  the  indis- 
pensable means  and  strength  to  defend  its  independence. 

(Page  43) :  The  entry  of  a  new  state  upon  the  political  scene  depends 
in  no  wise  upon  an  express  preliminary  recognition  by  foreign  powers. 
It  is  fully  accomplished  the  day  when  it  commences  to  exist.  On  the 
other  hand,  political  reasons  alone  may  decide  foreign  powers  to 
recognise  or  enter  into  direct  relations  with  it.  Recognition  only  con- 
firms what  legally  exists  by  admitting  the  new  member  into  the  grand 
European  family. 

(From  the  Cornmentary  upon  the  Elements  of  International  Law,  and 
History  of  the  Progress  of  International  Law,  by  William  Beach 
Lawrence.) 
(Page  162):  It  is  not  necessary  that  there  should  be  a  determined 
number  of  persons  to  form  a  state. 

(Page  197):  Texas  was  recognised  by  England  in  1839,  when  its 
population  was  not  more  than  60,000  souls.  Lord  Palmerston  said  on 
that  occasion  to  Mr.  O'Connell  that  "the  principle  of  the  Government 
was  to  recognise  every  state  which  had  a  de  facto  independence." 

(Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  State  of  New  York.     Founded  A.D. 

1768.) 

At  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  held  January 
10,  1884,  the  following  resolutions,  presented  by  Mr.  A.  A.  Low,  were 
adopted: 


Appendix  529 

Whereas,  the  President  of  the  United  States  has,  in  his  recent 
message,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  rich  and  populous  valley 
of  the  Congo  is  now  being  opened  to  commerce  by  the  International 
African  Association,  and  has  especially  dwelt  upon  the  interest,  for  the 
purposes  of  trade  and  commerce,  that  we  have,  as  a  people,  in  the  neu- 
trality of  that  valley,  free  from  the  interference  or  political  control  of 
any  one  nation:   Therefore, 

Be  it  resolved,  As  the  opinion  of  this  Chamber  that  it  is  incumbent 
upon  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  through  its  accredited 
representative,  to  apprise  the  Portuguese  Government  that  it  will  not 
recognise,  but  denies  the  right  of  the  latter  to  interfere  with  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Congo;  that  the  discovery  of  this  great  waterway 
into  the  interior  of  Central  Africa  is  not  due  to  Portugal,  but  was  the 
discovery  of  an  explorer  in  the  interest  of  no  one  nationality;  and 
that  the  entry,  400  years  ago,  into  the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  by  the 
Portuguese,  not  having  been  followed  up  by  actual  and  continued 
occupation,  can  give  that  nation  no  territorial  right  to  the  river,  or  to 
the  countries  upon  its  banks. 

Resolved,  That  the  recognition  by  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  of  the  flag  of  the  International  African  Association,  now  extend- 
ing over  twenty-two  settlements,  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  will  be  but  an 
acknowledgment  of  the  fact  that  that  organisation,  under  rights  ceded 
to  it  by  African  chiefs  of  independent  territories,  is  exercising  rule  and 
authority  over  a  large  part  of  Africa  in  the  protection  of  life  and  pro- 
perty, the  extinguishment  of  the  slave  trade,  the  facilitating  of  com- 
mercial intercourse,  and  other  attributes  of  sovereignty;  and  that  it 
be  recommended  to  the  President  to  send  an  accredited  agent  of  the 
Government  to  the  Congo,  to  confer  with  that  association  in  the 
adopting  of  such  measures  as  may  secure  to  American  citizens  free 
commercial  intercotirse  along  the  course  of  that  river,  and  through  the 
various  settlements  or  stations  established  by  the  association. 

A  true  copy. 

Jas.  M.  Brown, 

President. 
George  Wilson, 

Secretary. 

(From  copy  of  correspondence  of  the  Manchester  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce and  the  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs.) 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Belgians  has,  during  the  last  two  years, 
incurred  considerable  expense  in  an  expedition  to  the  Upper  Congo 
for  the  purposes  of  opening  roads,  establishing  stations  for  trade,  and 
for  communication  with  the  vast  tribes  inhabiting  the  interior  of 
Africa.     For  the  result  of  this  expedition  merchants  are  watching  with 


530  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

interest,  believing  that  this  river  will  ultimately  become  one  of  the 
great  highways  for  trade  in  the  heart  of  Africa. 

It  is,  therefore,  both  manifest  and  notorious  that  the 
African  tribes  who  inhabit  the  coast-line  claimed  by  Portugal,  between 
5°  12',  and  8th  degree  south  latitude,  are  in  reality  independent,  and 
that  the  right  acquired  by  Portugal  from  priority  of  discovery  at  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century  has  for  a  long  time  been  suffered  to  lapse, 
owing  to  the  Portuguese  Government  not  having  occupied  the  country 
so  discovered.  In  the  presence  of  these  facts  the  undersigned  must  re- 
peat the  declaration  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  that  the  interests  of 
commerce  imperatively  required  it  to  maintain  the  right  of  unrestricted 
intercourse  with  that  part  of  the  coast  of  Western  Africa  extending 
between  5°,  12',  and  the  8th  degree  of  south  latitude. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  my  lord,  your  lordship's  obedient,  very 
humble  servant, 

John  Slagg, 

President. 

(From  Earl  Granville's  reply  to  Lord  Mount  Temple  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  March  0,  1883.) 

.  The  labours  of  men  like  Livingstone,  Stanley,  and  others 
have  given  us  a  knowledge  of  the  physical  character  of  Central  Africa, 
and  of  the  populations  which  inhabit  it,  showing  that  there  are  great 
capabilities  for  the  development  of  trade,  and  of  the  civilising  effects 
which  are  the  result  of  commerce.  The  work  of  the  philanthropic 
International  Association,  in  which  the  King  of  the  Belgians  takes  a 
great  interest,  the  mission  of  M.  de  Brazza,  the  increasing  trade  in 
different  degrees,  of  the  English,  the  Portuguese,  the  French,  the 
Germans,  the  Dutch,  and  the  Belgians,  on  the  Congo  and  its  banks, 
are  acting  as  a  stimulus  and  afford  grounds  why  no  reasonable  en- 
deavours should  be  neglected  to  insure  freedom  of  commerce  and 
navigation,  and  to  anticipate  possible  jealousies,  which  so  easily  check 
trade,  and  which,  under  the  pretence  of  securing  peculiar  advantages 
to  some,  are  really  injurious  to  all. 


GENERAL  ACT  OF  THE  BERLIN  CONFERENCE 

In  the  name  of  Almighty  God, — 

His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia;  His  Majesty 
the  Emperor  of  Austria,  King  of  Bohemia,  etc.,  and  Apostolic  King  of 
Hungary;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Belgians;  His  Majesty  the 
King  of  Denmark;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Spain;  the  President  of 
the  United  States  of  America ;  the  President  of  the  French  Republic ; 
Her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 


Appendix  53^ 

Ireland,  Empress  of  India;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Italy;  His  Maj- 
esty the  King  of  the  Netherlands,  Grand  Duke  of  Ltixembourg,  etc. ; 
His  Majesty  the  King  of  Portugal  and  the  Algarves,  etc. ;  His  Majesty 
the  Emperor  of  All  the  Russias;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Sweden  and 
Norway,  etc. ;   and  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  the  Ottomans, 

Wishing,  in  a  spirit  of  good  and  mutual  accord,  to  regulate  the 
conditions  most  favourable  to  the  development  of  trade  and  civilisa- 
tion in  certain  regions  of  Africa,  and  to  assure  to  all  nations  the  advan- 
tages of  free  navigation  on  the  two  chief  rivers  of  Africa  flowing  into 
the  Atlantic  Ocean;  being  desirous,  on  the  other  hand,  to  obviate  the 
misunderstandings  and  disputes  which  might  in  future  arise  from  new 
acts  of  occupation  (prises  de  possession)  on  the  coast  of  Africa;  and 
concerned,  at  the  same  time,  as  to  the  means  of  furthering  the  moral 
and  material  well-being  of  the  native  populations :  Have  resolved,  on 
the  invitation  addressed  to  them  by  the  Imperial  Government  of  Ger- 
many, in  agreement  with  the  Government  of  the  French  Republic,  to 
meet  for  those  purposes  in  Conference  at  Berlin,  and  have  appointed 
as  their  Plenipotentiaries,  to  wit: — 

His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia,  Otho,  Prince 
von  Bismarck,  his  President  of  the  Prussian  Council  of  Ministers, 
Chancellor  of  the  Empire;  Paul,  Count  von  Hatzfeldt,  his  Minister  of 
State  and  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs;  Auguste  Busch,  his 
Acting  Privy  Councillor  of  Legation  and  Under-Secretary  of  State  for 
Foreign  Affairs ;  and  Henri  von  Kusserow,  Privy  Councillor  of  Legation 
in  the  Department  for  Foreign  Affairs; 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  King  of  Bohemia,  etc.,  and 
Apostolic  King  of  Hungary,  Emeric,  Count  Szechenyi  de  Sarvdri 
Felso-Vidck,  Chamberlain  and  Acting  Privy  Councillor,  his  Ambas- 
sador Extraordinary  and  Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  His  Majesty 
the  German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  Gabriel  Auguste  Count  Van 
dcr  Straten  Ponthoz,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary at  the  Court  of  His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor,  King  of 
Prussia;  and  Auguste,  Baron  Lambermont,  Minister  of  State,  Envoy 
Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Denmark,  Emile  de  Vind,  Chamberlain, 
his  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court 
of  His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Spain,  Don  Francisco  Merry  y  Colom,  Count 
Benomar,  his  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at 
the  Court  of  His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia; 

The  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  John  A.  Kasson, 
Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United 
States  of  America  at  the  Court  of  His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor, 
King  of  Prussia;   and  Henry  S.  Sanford,  ex-Minister; 


532  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  President  of  the  French  Republic,  Alphonse,  Baron  de  Courcel, 
Ambassador  Extraordinary  and-  Plenipotentiary  of  France  at  the 
Court  of  His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia; 

Her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  Empress  of  India,  Sir  Edward  Baldwin  Malet,  her  Ambassador 
Extraordinary  and  Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  His  Majesty  the 
German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Italy,  Edward,  Count  de  Launay,  his  Am- 
bassador Extraordinary  and  Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  His 
Majesty  the  German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Netherlands,  Grand  Duke  of  Luxem- 
bourg, Frederic  Philippe,  Jonkheer  Van  der  Hoeven,  his  Envoy  Ex- 
traordinary and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  His  Majesty 
the  German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia ; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Portugal  and  the  Algarves,  etc..  Da  Serra 
Gomes,  Marquis  de  Penafiel,  Peer  of  the  Realm,  his  Envoy  Extra- 
ordinary and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  His  Majest}'  the 
German  Emperor,  King  of  Prussia;  and  Antoine  de  Serpa  Pimentel, 
Councillor  of  State  and  Peer  of  the  Realm; 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  Pierre,  Count  Kapnist, 
Privy  Councillor,  his  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary at  the  Court  of  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Netherlands ; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  etc.,  Gillis,  Baron 
Bildt,  Lieutenant-General,  his  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor, 
King  of  Prussia; 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  the  Ottomans,  Mdhemed  Said  Pasha, 
V^zir  and  High  Dignitary,  his  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Plenipoten- 
tiary at  the  Court  of  His  Majesty  the  German  Emperor,  King  of 
Prussia ; 

Who,  being  provided  with  full  powers,  which  have  been  found  in 
good  and  due  form,  have  successively  discussed  and  adopted: — 

1.  A  Declaration  relative  to  freedom  of  trade  in  the  basin  of  the 
Congo,  its  embouchures  and  circumjacent  regions,  with  other  pro- 
visions connected  therewith. 

2.  A  Declaration  relative  to  the  Slave  Trade,  and  the  operations  by 
sea  or  land  which  furnish  slaves  to  that  trade. 

3.  A  Declaration  relative  to  the  neutrality  of  the  territories  com- 
prised in  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo. 

4.  An  Act  of  Navigation  for  the  Congo,  which,  while  having  regard 
to  local  circumstances,  extends  to  this  river,  its  affluents,  and  the 
waters  in  its  system  {eaux  qui  leur  sont  assimilees) ,  the  general  prin- 
ciples enunciated  in  Articles  CVIII.  and  CXVI.  of  the  Final  Act  of  the 
Congress  of  Vienna,  and  intended  to  regulate,  as  between  the  Signatory 
Powers  of  that  Act,  the  free  navigation  of  the  waterways  separating  or 


Appendix  533 

traversing  several  States — these  said  principles  having  since  then  been 
applied  by  agreement  to  certain  rivers  of  Europe  and  America,  but 
especially  to  the  Danube,  with  the  modifications  stipulated  by  the 
Treaties  of  Paris  (1856),  of  Berlin  (1878),  and  of  London  (of  1871  and 
1883). 

5.  An  Act  of  Navigation  for  the  Niger,  which,  while  likewise  having 
regard  to  local  circumstances,  extends  to  this  river  and  its  affluents 
the  same  principles  as  set  forth  in  Articles  CVIII.  and  CXVI.  of  the 
Final  Act  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna. 

6.  A  Declaration  introducing  into  international  relations  certain 
uniform  rules  with  reference  to  future  occupations  on  the  coasts  of  the 
African  Continent. 

And  deeming  it  expedient  that  all  these  several  documents  should 
be  combined  into  one  single  instrument,  they  (the  Signatory  Powers) 
have  collected  them  into  one  General  Act,  composed  of  the  following 
Articles : 

Chapter  I. — Declaration  relative  to  Freedom  of  Trade  in  the  Basin  of 
the  Congo,  its  Mouths,  and  circutnjacent  Regions,  with  other  Provi- 
sions connected  therewith. 

Article  i.     The  trade  of  all  nations  shall  enjoy  complete  freedom — ■ 

1 .  In  all  the  regions  forming  the  basin  of  the  Congo  and  its  outlets. 
This  basin  is  bounded  by  the  watersheds  (or  mountain  ridges)  of  the 
adjacent  basins,  namely,  in  particular,  those  of  the  Niara,  the  Ogowe, 
the  Schari,  and  the  Nile,  on  the  north;  by  the  eastern  watershed  line 
of  the  affluents  of  Lake  Tanganyika,  on  the  east;  and  by  the  water- 
sheds of  the  basins  of  the  Zambesi  and  the  Loge,  on  the  south.  It 
therefore  comprises  all  the  regions  watered  by  the  Congo  and  its 
affluents,  including  Tanganyika,  with  its  eastern  tributaries. 

2.  In  the  maritime  zone  extending  along  the  Atlantic  Ocean  from 
the  parallel  situated  in  2°  30'  of  south  latitude  to  the  mouth  of  the  Loge. 

The  northern  boundary  will  follow  the  parallel  situated  in  2°  30' 
from  the  coast  to  the  point  where  it  meets  the  geographical  basin  of 
the  Congo,  avoiding  the  basin  of  the  Ogowe,  to  which  the  provisions  of 
the  present  Act  do  not  apply. 

The  southern  boundary  will  follow  the  course  of  the  Loge  to  its 
source,  and  thence  pass  eastwards  till  it  joins  the  geographical  basin 
of  the  Congo. 

3.  In  the  zone  stretching  eastwards  from  the  Congo  Basin,  as  above 
defined,  to  the  Indian  Ocean  from  the  5°  of  north  latitude  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Zambesi  in  the  south,  from  which  point  the  line  of  demarcation 
will  ascend  the  Zambesi  to  five  miles  above  its  confluence  with  the 
Shire,  and  then  follow  the  watershed  between  the  affluents  of  Lake 
Nyassa  and  those  of  the  Zambesi,  till  at  last  it  reaches  the  watershed 
between  the  waters  of  the  Zambesi  and  the  Congo. 


534  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

It  is  expressly  recognised  that  in  extending  the  principle  of  free 
trade  to  this  eastern  zone  the  Conference  Powers  only  undertake  en- 
gagements for  themselves,  and  that  in  the  territories  belonging  to  an 
independent  Sovereign  State  this  principle  shall  only  be  applicable  in 
so  far  as  it  is  approved  by  stich  State.  But  the  Powers  agree  to  use 
their  good  offices  with  the  Governments  established  on  the  African 
shore  of  the  Indian  Ocean  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  such  approval, 
and  in  any  case  of  securing  the  most  favourable  conditions  to  the 
transit  (traffic)  of  all  nations. 

Article  2.  All  flags,  without  distinction  of  nationality,  shall  have 
free  access  to  the  whole  of  the  coast-line  of  the  territories  above  enu- 
merated, to  the  rivers  there  running  into  the  sea,  to  all  the  waters  of 
the  Congo  and  its  affluents,  including  the  lakes,  and  to  all  the  ports 
situate  on  the  banks  of  these  waters,  as  well  as  to  all  canals  which  may 
in  future  be  constructed  with  intent  to  unite  the  watercourses  or  lakes 
within  the  entire  area  of  the  territories  described  in  Article  i.  Those 
trading  under  such  flags  may  engage  in  all  sorts  of  transport,  and 
carry  on  the  coasting  trade  by  sea  and  river,  as  well  as  boat  traffic,  on 
the  same  footing  as  if  they  were  subjects. 

Article  3.  Wares,  of  whatever  origin,  imported  into  those  regions, 
under  whatsoever  flag,  by  sea  or  river,  or  overland,  shall  be  subject  to 
no  other  taxes  than  such  as  may  be  levied  as  fair  compensation  for 
expenditure  in  the  interest  of  trade,  and  which  for  this  reason  must  be 
equally  borne  by  the  subjects  themselves  and  by  foreigners  of  all  na- 
tionalities. All  differential  dues  on  vessels,  as  well  as  on  merchandise, 
are  forbidden. 

Article  4.  Merchandise  imported  into  those  regions  shall  remain 
free  from  import  and  transit  dues. 

The  Powers  reserve  to  themselves  to  determine  after  the  lapse 
of  twenty  years  whether  this  freedom  of  import  shall  be  retained 
or  not. 

Article  5.  No  Power  which  exercises  or  shall  exercise  sovereign 
rights  in  the  above-mentioned  regions  shall  be  allowed  to  grant  therein 
a  monopoly  or  favour  of  any  kind  in  matters  of  trade. 

Foreigners,  without  distinction,  shall  enjoy  protection  of  their  per- 
sons and  property,  as  well  as  the  right  of  acqtiiring  and  transferring 
movable  and  immovable  possessions;  and  national  rights  and  treat- 
ment in  the  exercise  of  their  professions. 

Article  6.  Provisions  relative  to  Protection  of  the  Natives,  of  Mis- 
sionaries and  Travellers,  as  well  as  relative  to  Religious  Liberty. — All  the 
Powers  exercising  sovereign  rights  or  influence  in  the  aforesaid  terri- 
tories bind  themselves  to  watch  over  the  preservation  of  the  native 
tribes,  and  to  care  for  the  improvement  of  the  conditions  of  their 
moral  and  material  well-being,  and  to  help  in  suppressing  slavery,  and 
especially  the  Slave  Trade.     They  shall,  without  distinction  of  creed 


Appendix-  535 

or  nation,  protect  and  favour  all  religious,  scientific,  or  charitable  in- 
stitutions, and  undertakings  created  and  organised  for  the  above  ends, 
or  which  aim  at  instructing  the  natives  and  bringing  home  to  them  the 
blessings  of  civilisation. 

Christian  missionaries,  scientists,  and  explorers,  with  their  followers, 
property,  and  collections,  shall  likewise  be  the  objects  of  especial  pro- 
tection. 

Freedom  of  conscience  and  religious  toleration  are  expressly  guaran- 
teed to  the  natives,  no  less  than  to  subjects  and  to  foreigners.  The 
free  and  public  exercise  of  all  forms  of  Divine  worship,  and  the  right  to 
build  edifices  for  religious  purposes,  and  to  organise  religious  missions 
belonging  to  all  creeds,  shall  not  be  limited  or  fettered  in  any  way 
whatsoever. 

Article  7.  Postal  Regime. — The  Convention  of  the  Universal 
Postal  Union,  as  revised  at  Paris  the  ist  June,  1878,  shall  be  applied 
to  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo. 

The  Powers  who  therein  do  or  shall  exercise  rights  of  sovereignty 
or  protectorate  engage,  as  soon  as  circumstances  permit  them,  to 
take  the  measures  necessary  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  preceding  pro- 
vision. 

Article  8.  Right  of  Surveillance  vested  in  the  International  Naviga- 
tion Commission  of  the  Congo. — In  all  parts  of  the  territory  had  in  view 
by  the  present  Declaration,  where  no  Power  shall  exercise  rights  of 
sovereignty  or  protectorate,  the  International  Navigation  Commission 
of  the  Congo,  instituted  in  virtue  of  Article  17,  shall  be  charged  with 
supervising  the  application  of  the  principles  proclaimed  and  per- 
petuated {consacres)  by  this  Declaration. 

In  all  cases  of  difference  arising  relative  to  the  application  of  the 
principles  established  by  the  present  Declaration,  the  Governments 
concerned  may  agree  to  appeal  to  the  good  offices  of  the  International 
Commission,  by  submitting  to  it  an  examination  of  the  facts  which 
shall  have  occasioned  these  differences. 

Chapter  II. — Declaration  relative  to  the  Slave  Trade 

Article  9.  Seeing  that  trading  in  slaves  is  forbidden  in  conformity 
with  the  principles  of  international  law  as  recognised  by  the  Signatory 
Powers,  and  seeing  also  that  the  operations  which  by  sea  or  land  fur- 
nish slaves  to  trade  ought  likewise  to  be  regarded  as  forbidden,  the 
Powers  which  do  or  shall  exercise  sovereign  rights  or  influence  in  the 
territories  forming  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo  declare  that 
these  territories  may  not  serve  as  a  market  or  means  of  transit  for  the 
trade  in  slaves,  of  whatever  race  they  may  be.  Each  of  the  Powers 
binds  itself  to  employ  all  the  means  at  its  disposal  for  putting  an  end 
to  this  trade  and  for  punishing  those  who  engage  in  it, 


53^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

'Chapter  III. — Declaration  relative  to  the  Neutrality  of  the  Territories 
comprised  in  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo 

Article  io.  In  order  to  give  a  new  guarantee  of  security  to  trade 
and  industry,  and  to  encourage,  by  the  maintenance  of  peace,  the  de- 
velopment of  civihsation  mentioned  in  Article  i ,  and  placed  under  the 
free  trade  system,  the  High  Signatory  Parties  to  the  present  Act,  and 
those  who  shall  hereafter  adopt  it,  bind  themselves  to  respect  the  neu- 
trality of  the  territories,  or  portions  of  territories,  belonging  to  the 
said  covintries,  comprising  therein  the  territorial  waters,  so  long  as  the 
Powers  which  exercise  or  shall  exercise  the  rights  of  sovereignty  or 
protectorate  over  those  territories,  using  their  option  of  proclaiming 
themselves  neutral,  shall  fulfil  the  duties  which  neutrality  requires. 

Article  ii.  In  case  a  Power  exercising  rights  of  sovereignty  or 
protectorate  in  the  countries  mentioned  in  Article  i ,  and  placed  under 
the  free  trade  system,  shall  be  involved  in  a  war,  then  the  High  Sig- 
natory Parties  to  the  present  Act,  and  those  who  shall  hereafter  adopt 
it,  bind  themselves  to  lend  their  good  offices  in  order  that  the  terri- 
tories belonging  to  this  Power  and  comprised  in  the  Conventional  free 
trade  zone  shall,  by  the  common  consent  of  this  Power  and  of  the 
other  belligerent  or  belligerents,  be  placed  during  the  war  under  the 
rule  of  neutrality,  and  considered  as  belonging  to  a  non-belligerent 
State,  the  belligerents  thenceforth  abstaining  from  extending  hostilities 
to  the  territories  thus  neutralised,  and  from  using  them  as  a  base  for 
warlike  operations. 

Article  12.  In  case  a  serious  disagreement  originating  on  the  sub- 
ject of,  or  in  the  limits  of,  the  territories  mentioned  in  Article  i  and 
placed  under  the  free  trade  system,  shall  arise  between  any  Signatory 
Powers  of  the  present  Act,  or  the  Powers  which  may  become  parties 
to  it,  these  Powers  bind  themselves,  before  appealing  to  arms,  to  have 
recourse  to  the  mediation  of  one  or  more  of  the  friendly  Powers. 

In  a  similar  case  the  same  Powers  reserve  to  themselves  the  option 
of  having  recourse  to  arbitration. 

Chapter  IV. — Act  of  Navigation  for  the  Congo 

Article  13.  The  navigation  of  the  Congo,  without  excepting  any 
of  its  branches  or  outlets,  is,  and  shall  remain,  free  for  the  merchant 
ships  of  all  nations  equally,  whether  carrying  cargo  or  ballast,  for  the 
transport  of  goods  or  passengers.  It  shall  be  regulated  by  the  pro- 
visions of  this  Act  of  Navigation,  and  by  the  rules  to  be  made  in 
pursuance  thereof. 

In  the  exercise  of  this  navigation  the  subjects  and  flags  of  all  nations 
shall  in  all  respects  be  treated  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality,  not 
only  for  the  direct  navigation  from  the  open  sea  to  the  inland  ports  of 


Appendix  537 

the  Congo  and  vice  versd,  but  also  for  the  great  and  small  coasting 
trade,  and  for  boat  traffic  on  the  course  of  the  river. 

Consequently,  on  all  the  course  and  mouths  of  the  Congo  there  will 
be  no  distinction  made  between  the  subjects  of  Riverain  States  and 
those  of  non- Riverain  States,  and  no  exclusive  privilege  of  navigation 
will  be  conceded  to  companies,  corporations,  or  private  persons  what- 
soever. 

These  provisions  are  recognised  by  the  Signatory  Powers  as  becom- 
ing henceforth  a  part  of  international  law. 

Article  14.  The  navigation  of  the  Congo  shall  not  be  subject  to 
any  restriction  or  obligation  which  is  not  expressly  stipulated  by  the 
present  Act.  It  shall  not  be  exposed  to  any  landing  dues,  to  any  sta- 
tion or  depot  tax,  or  to  any  charge  for  breaking  bulk,  or  for  compulsory 
entry  into  port. 

In  all  the  extent  of  the  Congo  the  ships  and  goods  in  process  of 
transit  on  the  river  shall  be  submitted  to  no  transit  dues,  whatever 
their  starting-place  or  destination. 

There  shall  be  levied  no  maritime  or  river  toll  based  on  the  mere  fact 
of  navigation,  nor  any  tax  on  goods  aboard  of  ships.  There  shall  only 
be  levied  taxes  or  duties  having  the  character  of  an  equivalent  for 
services  rendered  to  navigation  itself,  to  wit: 

1.  Harbour  dues  on  certain  local  establishments,  such  as  wharves, 
warehouses,  etc.,  if  actually  used. 

The  tariff  of  such  dues  shall  be  framed  according  to  the  cost  of  con- 
structing and  maintaining  the  said  local  establishments;  and  it  will  be 
applied  without  regard  to  whence  vessels  come  or  what  they  are  loaded 
with. 

2.  Pilot  dues  for  those  stretches  of  the  river  where  it  may  be  neces- 
sary to  establish  properly  qualified  pilots. 

The  tariff  of  these  dues  shall  be  fixed  and  calculated  in  proportion  to 
the  service  rendered. 

3.  Charges  raised  to  cover  technical  and  administrative  expenses 
incurred  in  the  general  interest  of  navigation,  including  lighthouse, 
beacon,  and  buoy  duties. 

The  last-mentioned  dues  shall  be  based  on  the  tonnage  of  vessels  as 
shown  by  the  ship's  papers,  and  in  accordance  with  the  rules  adopted 
on  the  Lower  Danube. 

The  tariffs  by  which  the  various  dues  and  taxes  enumerated  in  the 
three  preceding  paragraphs  shall  be  levied  shall  not  involve  any  differ- 
ential treatment,  and  shall  be  officially  published  at  each  port. 

The  Powers  reserve  to  themselves  to  consider,  after  the  lapse  of  five 
years,  whether  it  may  be  necessary  to  revise,  by  common  accord,  the 
above-mentioned  tariffs. 

Article  15.  The  affluents  of  the  Congo  shall  in  all  respects  be  sub- 
ject to  the  same  rules  as  the  river  of  which  they  arc  tributaries. 


538  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

And  the  same  rules  shall  apply  to  the  streams  and  river  as  well  as 
the  lakes  and  canals  in  the  territories  defined  in  paragraphs  2  and  3  of 
Article  i. 

At  the  same  time  the  powers  of  the  International  Commission  o^  the 
Congo  will  not  extend  to  the  said  rivers,  streams,  lakes,  and  canals 
unless  with  the  assent  of  the  States  under  whose  sovereignty  they  are 
placed.  It  is  well  understood,  also,  that  with  regard  to  the  territories 
mentioned  in  paragraph  3  of  Article  i,  the  consent  of  the  Sovereign 
States  owning  these  territories  is  reserv^ed. 

Article  16.  The  roads,  railways,  or  lateral  canals  which  may  be 
constructed  with  the  special  object  of  obviating  the  innavigability  or 
correcting  the  imperfection  of  the  river  route  on  certain  sections  of  the 
course  of  the  Congo,  its  affluents,  and  other  waterways  placed  under  a 
similar  system,  as  laid  down  in  Article  15,  shall  be  considered,  in  their 
quality  of  means  of  communication,  as  dependencies  of  this  river,  and 
as  equally  open  to  the  traffic  of  all  nations. 

And  as  on  the  river  itself,  so  there  shall  be  collected  on  these  roads, 
railways,  and  canals  onh^  tolls  calculated  on  the  cost  of  construction, 
maintenance,  and  management,  and  on  the  profits  due  to  the  promoters. 

As  regards  the  tariff  of  these  tolls,  strangers  and  the  natives  of  the 
respective  territories  shall  be  treated  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality. 

Article  17.  There  is  instituted  an  International  Commission, 
charged  with  the  execution  of  the  provisions  of  the  present  Act  of 
Navigation. 

The  Signatory  Powers  of  this  Act,  as  well  as  those  who  may  subse- 
quently adhere  to  it,  may  always  be  represented  on  the  said  Commis- 
sion, each  by  one  Delegate.  But  no  Delegate  shall  have  more  than 
one  vote  at  his  disposal,  even  in  the  case  of  his  representing  several 
Governments. 

This  Delegate  will  be  directly  paid  by  his  Government.  As  for  the 
various  agents  and  employees  of  the  International  Commission,  their 
remuneration  shall  be  charged  to  the  amount  of  the  dues  collected  in 
conformity  with  paragraphs  2  and  3  of  Article  14. 

The  particulars  of  the  said  remuneration,  as  well  as  the  number, 
grade,  and  powers  of  the  agents  and  employees,  shall  be  entered  in  the 
Returns  to  be  sent  yearly  to  the  Governments  represented  on  the  In- 
ternational Commission. 

Article  18.  The  members  of  the  International  Commission,  as  well 
as  its  appointed  agents,  are  invested  with  the  privileges  of  inviolability 
in  the  exercise  of  their  functions.  The  same  guarantee  shall  apply  to 
the  offices  and  archives  of  the  Commission. 

Article  19.  The  International  Commission  for  the  Navigation  of 
the  Congo  shall  be  constituted  as  soon  as  five  of  the  Signatory  Powers 
of  the  present  General  Act  shall  have  appointed  their  Delegates.  And 
pending  the  constitution  of  the  Commission  the  nomination  of  these 


Appendix  539 

Delegates  shall  be  notified  to  the  Imperial  Government  of  Germany, 
which  will  see  to  it  that  the  necessary  steps  are  taken  to  summon  the 
meeting  of  the  Commission. 

The  Commission  will  at  once  draw  up  Navigation,  River  Police,  Pilot, 
and  Quarantine  Rules. 

These  Rules,  as  well  as  the  tariffs  to  be  framed  by  the  Commission, 
shall,  before  coming  into  force,  be  submitted  for  approval  to  the 
Powers  represented  on  the  Commission.  The  Powers  interested  will 
have  to  communicate  their  views  with  as  little  delay  as  possible. 

Any  infringements  of  these  Rules  will  be  checked  by  the  agents  of 
the  International  Commission  wherever  it  exercises  direct  authority, 
and  elsewhere  by  the  Riverain  Power. 

In  the  case  of  an  abuse  of  power,  or  an  act  of  injustice,  on  the  part 
of  any  agent  or  employee  of  the  International  Commission,  the  indi- 
vidual who  considers  himself  to  be  aggrieved  in  his  person  or  rights 
may  apply  to  the  Consular  Agent  of  his  country.  The  latter  will 
examine  his  complaint,  and  if  he  finds  it  primd  facie  reasonable, 
he  will  then  be  entitled  to  bring  it  before  the  Commission.  At  his 
instance  then,  the  Commission,  represented  by  at  least  three  of  its 
members,  shall  in  conjunction  with  him  inquire  into  the  conduct  of  its 
agent  or  employee.  Should  the  Consular  Agent  look  upon  the  decision 
of  the  Commission  as  raising  questions  of  law  (objections  de  droit), 
he  will  report  on  the  subject  to  his  Government,  which  may  then  have 
recourse  to  the  Powers  represented  on  the  Commission,  and  invite 
them  to  agree  as  to  the  instructions  to  be  given  to  the  Commission. 

Article  20.  The  International  Commission  of  the  Congo,  charged 
in  terms  of  Article  17  with  the  execution  of  the  present  Act  of  Navi- 
gation, shall  in  particular  have  power — 

1.  To  decide  what  works  are  necessary  to  assure  the  navigability  of 
the  Congo  in  accordance  with  the  needs  of  international  trade. 

On  those  sections  of  the  river  where  no  Power  exercises  sovereign 
rights,  the  International  Commission  will  itself  take  the  necessary 
measures  for  assuring  the  navigability  of  the  river. 

On  those  sections  of  the  river  held  by  a  Sovereign  Power,  the  Inter- 
national Commission  will  concert  its  action  (s'entendra)  with  the 
riparian  authorities. 

2.  To  fix  the  pilot  tariff  and  that  of  the  general  navigation  dues  as 
provided  for  by  paragraphs  2  and  3  of  Article  14. 

The  tariffs  mentioned  in  the  first  paragraph  of  Article  14  shall  be 
framed  b}^  the  territorial  authorities  within  the  limits  prescribed  in  the 
said  Article. 

The  levying  of  the  various  dues  shall  be  seen  to  by  the  international 
or  territorial  authorities  on  whose  behalf  they  are  established. 

3.  To  administer  the  revenue  arising  from  the  application  of  the 
preceding  paragraph  (2). 


540  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

4.  To  superintend  the  quarantine  establishment  created  in  virtue  of 
Article  24. 

5.  To  appoint  officials  for  the  general  service  of  navigation,  and  also 
its  own  proper  employees. 

It  will  be  for  the  territorial  authorities  to  appoint  Sub-Inspectors  on 
sections  of  the  river  occupied  by  a  Power,  and  for  the  International 
Commission  to  do  so  on  the  other  sections. 

The  Riverain  Power  will  notify  to  the  International  Commission  the 
appointment  of  Sub- Inspectors,  and  this  Power  will  undertake  the 
payment  of  their  salaries. 

In  the  exercise  of  its  functions  as  above-  defined  and  limited, 
the  International  Commission  will  be  independent  of  the  territorial 
authorities. 

Article  21.  In  the  accomplishment  of  its  task  the  International 
Commission  may,  if  need  be,  have  recourse  to  the  war-vessels  of  the 
Signatory  Powers  of  this  Act,  and  of  those  who  may  in  future  accede 
to  it,  under  reserve,  however,  of  the  instructions  which  may  be  given 
to  the  Commanders  of  their  vessels  by  their  respective  Governments. 

Article  22.  The  war  vessels  of  the  Signatory  Powers  of  this  Act 
that  may  enter  the  Congo  are  exempt  from  payment  of  the  navigation 
dues  provided  for  in  paragraph  3  of  Article  14;  but  unless  their  inter- 
vention has  been  called  for  by  the  International  Commission  or  its 
agents,  in  terms  of  the  preceding  Article,  they  shall  be  liable  to  the 
payment  of  the  pilot  or  harbour  dues  which  may  eventually  be 
established. 

Article  23.  With  the  view  of  providing  for  the  technical  and  ad- 
ministrative expenses  which  it  may  incur,  the  International  Commis- 
sion created  by  Article  17  may,  in  its  own  name,  negotiate  loans  to 
be  exclusively  guaranteed  by  the  revenues  raised  by  the  said  Com- 
mission. 

The  decisions  of  the  Commission  dealing  with  the  conclusion  of  a 
loan  must  be  come  to  by  a  majority  of  two  thirds.  It  is  understood 
that  the  Governments  represented  on  the  Commission  shall  not  in  any 
case  be  held  as  assuming  any  guarantee,  or  as  contracting  any  en- 
gagement or  joint  liability  (solidarite)  with  respect  to  the  said 
loans,  unless  under  special  Conventions  concluded  by  them  to  this 
effect. 

The  revenue  yielded  by  the  dues  specified  in  paragraph  3  of  Article 
14  shall  bear,  as  a  first  charge,  the  payment  of  the  interest  and  sinking 
fund  of  the  said  loans,  according  to  agreement  with  the  lenders. 

Article  24.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  there  shall  be  founded, 
either  on  the  initiative  of  the  Riverain  Powers,  or  by  the  intervention 
of  the  International  Commission,  a  quarantine  establishment  for  the 
control  of  vessels  passing  out  of  as  well  as  into  the  river. 

Later  on,  the  Powers  will  decide  whether  and  on  what  conditions  a 


Appendix  54^ 

sanitary  control  shall  be  exercised  over  vessels  engaged  in  the  naviga- 
tion of  the  river  itself. 

Article  25.  The  provisions  of  the  present  Act  of  Navigation  shall 
remain  in  force  in  time  of  war.  Consequently  all  nations,  whether 
neutral  or  belligerent,  shall  always  be  free,  for  the  purposes  of  trade, 
to  navigate  the  Congo,  its  branches,  affluents,  and  mouths,  as  well  as 
the  territorial  waters  fronting  the  embouchure  of  the  river. 

Traffic  will  similarly  remain  free,  despite  a  state  of  war,  on  the  roads, 
railways,  lakes,  and  canals  mentioned  in  Articles  15  and  16. 

There  will  be  no  exception  to  this  principle  except  in  so  far  as  con- 
cerns the  transport  of  articles  intended  for  a  belligerent  and,  in  virtue 
of  the  law  of  nations,  regarded  as  contraband  of  war. 

All  the  works  and  establishments  created  in  pursuance  of  the  present 
Act,  especially  the  tax-collecting  offices  and  their  treasuries,  as  well  as 
the  permanent  service  staff  of  these  establishments,  shall  enjoy  the 
benefits  of  neutrality  (places  sous  le  regime  de  la  neutralite) ,  and  shall 
therefore  be  respected  and  protected  by  belligerents. 

Chapter  V. — Act  of  Navigation  for  the  Niger 

Article  26.  The  navigation  of  the  Niger,  without  excepting  any 
of  its  branches  and  outlets,  is  and  shall  remain  entirely  free  for  the 
merchant-ships  of  all  nations  equally,  whether  with  cargo  or  ballast, 
for  the  transportation  of  goods  and  passengers.  It  shall  be  regulated 
by  the  provisions  of  this  Act  of  Navigation,  and  by  the  rules  to  be 
made  in  pursuance  of  this  Act. 

In  the  exercise  of  this  navigation  the  subjects  and  flags  of  all  nations 
shall  be  treated,  in  all  circumstances,  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality, 
not  only  for  the  direct  navigation  from  the  open  sea  to  the  inland 
ports  of  the  Niger  and  vice  versd,  but  for  the  great  and  small  coasting 
trade,  and  for  boat  trade  on  the  course  of  the  river. 

Consequently,  on  all  the  course  and  mouths  of  the  Niger  there  will 
be  no  distinction  made  between  the  subjects  of  the  Riverain  States  and 
those  of  non-Riverain  States;  and  no  exclusive  privilege  of  naviga- 
tion will  be  conceded  to  companies,  corporations,  or  private  persons. 

These  provisions  are  recognised  by  the  Signatory  Powers  as  forming 
licnceforth  a  part  of  international  law. 

Article  27.  The  navigation  of  the  Niger  shall  not  be  subject  to  any 
restriction  or  obligation  based  merely  on  the  fact  of  navigation. 

It  shall  not  be  exposed  to  any  obligation  in  regard  to  landing,  sta- 
tion, or  depot,  or  for  breaking  bulk,  or  for  compulsory  entry  into  port. 

In  all  the  extent  of  the  Niger  the  ships  and  goods  in  process  of 
transit  on  the  river  shall  be  submitted  to  no  transit  dues,  whatever 
their  starting-place  or  destination. 

No  maritime  or  river  toll  shall  be  levied  based  on  the  sole  fact  of 


542  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

navigation,  nor  any  tax  on  goods  on  board  of  ships.  There  shall  only 
be  collected  taxes  or  duties  which  shall  be  an  equivalent  for  services 
rendered  to  navigation  itself.  The  tariff  of  these  taxes  or  duties  shall 
not  warrant  any  differential  treatment. 

Article  28.  The  affluents  of  the  Niger  shall  be  in  all  respects  sub- 
ject to  the  same  rules  as  the  river  of  which  they  are  tributaries. 

Article  29.  The  roads,  railways,  or  lateral  canals  which  may  be 
constructed  with  the  special  object  of  obviating  the  innavigability  or 
correcting  the  imperfections  of  the  river  route  on  certain  sections  of 
the  course  of  the  Niger,  its  affluents,  branches,  and  outlets,  shall  be 
considered,  in  their  quality  of  means  of  communication,  as  depend- 
encies of  this  river  and  as  equally  open  to  the  traffic  of  all  nations. 

And  as  on  the  river  itself,  so  there  shall  be  collected  on  these  roads, 
railways,  and  canals  only  tolls  calculated  on  the  cost  of  construction, 
maintenance,  and  management,  and  on  the  profits  due  to  the  promoters. 

As  regards  the  tariff  of  these  tolls,  strangers  and  the  natives  of  the 
respective  territories  shall  be  treated  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality. 

Article  30.  Great  Britain  undertakes  to  apply  the  principles  of 
freedom  of  navigation  enunciated  in  Articles  26,  27,  28,  and  29,  on  so 
much  of  the  waters  of  the  Niger,  its  affluents,  branches,  and  outlets,  as 
are  or  may  be  under  her  sovereignty  or  protection. 

The  rules  which  she  may  establish  for  the  safety  and  control  of 
navigation  shall  be  drawn  up  in  a  way  to  facilitate,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  circulation  of  merchant-ships. 

It  is  understood  that  nothing  in  these  obligations  shall  be  inter- 
preted as  hindering  Great  Britain  from  making  any  rules  of  navigation 
whatever  which  shall  not  be  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  these  engagements. 

Great  Britain  undertakes  to  protect  foreign  merchants  and  all  the 
trading  nationalities  on  all  those  portions  of  the  Niger  which  are  or 
may  be  under  her  sovereignty  or  protection  as  if  they  were  her  own 
subjects,  provided  always  that  such  merchants  conform  to  the  rules 
which  are  or  shall  be  made  in  virtue  of  the  foregoing. 

Article  31.  France  accepts,  under  the  same  reservations,  and 
in  identical  terms,  the  obHgations  undertaken  in  the  preceding 
Articles  in  respect  of  so  much  of  the  waters  of  the  Niger,  its  affluents, 
branches,  and  outlets,  as  are  or  may  be  under  her  sovereignty  or  pro- 
tection. 

Article  32.  Each  of  the  other  Signatory  Powers  binds  itself  in  the 
same  way,  in  case  it  should  ever  exercise  in  the  future  rights  of  sover- 
eignty or  protection  over  any  portion  of  the  waters  of  the  Niger,  its 
affluents,  branches,  or  outlets. 

Article  33.  The  arrangements  of  the  present  Act  of  Navigation 
will  remain  in  force  in  time  of  war.  Consequently,  the  navigation  of 
all  neutral  or  belligerent  nations  will  be  in  all  times  free  for  the  usages 
of  commerce  on  the  Niger,  its  branches,  its  affluents,  its  mouths,  and 


Appendix  543 

outlets,  as  well  as  on  the  territorial  waters  opposite  the  mouths  and 
outlets  of  that  river. 

The  traffic  will  remain  equally  free  in  spite  of  a  state  of  war  on  the 
roads,  railways,  and  canals  mentioned  in  Article  29. 

There  will  be  an  exception  to  this  principle  only  in  that  which  re- 
lates to  the  transport  of  articles  destined  for  a  belligerent  and  con- 
sidered, in  virtue  of  the  law  of  nations,  as  articles  of  contraband  of 
war. 

Chapter  VI. — Declaration  relative   to   the  essential  Conditions   to   be 

observed  in  order  that  new  Occupations  on  the  Coasts  of  the 

African  Continent  may  he  held  to  be  effective 

Article  34.  Any  Power  which  henceforth  takes  possession  of  a 
tract  of  land  on  the  coasts  of  the  African  Continent  outside  of  its 
present  possessions,  or  which,  being  hitherto  without  such  possessions, 
shall  acquire  them,  as  well  as  the  Power  which  assuines  a  protectorate 
there,  shall  accompany  the  respective  act  with  a  notification  thereof, 
addressed  to  the  other  Signatory  Powers  of  the  present  Act,  in  order 
to  enable  them,  if  need  be,  to  make  good  any  claims  of  their  own. 

Article  35.  The  Signatory  Powers  of  the  present  Act  recognise  the 
obligation  to  ensure  the  establishment  of  authority  in  the  regions  occu- 
pied by  them  on  the  coasts  of  the  African  Continent  sufficient  to 
protect  existing  rights,  and,  as  the  case  may  be,  freedom  of  trade  and 
of  transit  under  the  conditions  agreed  upon. 

Chapter  VII. — General  Dispositions 

Article  36.  The  Signatory  Powers  of  the  present  General  Act 
reserve  to  themselves  to  introduce  into  it  subsequently,  and  by  com- 
mon accord,  such  modifications  and  improvements  as  experience  may 
show  to  be  expedient. 

Article  37.  The  Powers  who  have  not  signed  the  present  General 
Act  shall  be  free  to  adhere  to  its  provisions  by  a  separate  instru- 
ment. 

The  adhesion  of  each  Power  shall  be  notified  in  diplomatic  form  to 
the  Government  of  the  German  Empire,  and  by  it  in  turn  to  all  the 
other  Signatory  or  adhering  Powers. 

Such  adhesion  shall  carry  with  it  full  acceptance  of  all  the  obliga- 
tions as  well  as  admission  to  all  the  advantages  stipulated  by  the 
present  General  Act. 

Article  38.  The  present  General  Act  shall  be  ratified  with  as  little 
delay  as  possible,  the  same  in  no  case  to  exceed  a  year. 

It  will  come  into  force  for  each  Power  from  the  date  of  its  ratifica- 
tion by  that  Power. 


544  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Meanwhile,  the  Signatory  Powers  of  the  present  General  Act  bind 
themselves  not  to  take  any  steps  contrary  to  its  provisions. 

Each  Power  will  address  its  ratification  to  the  Government  of  the 
German  Empire,  by  which  notice  of  the  fact  will  be  given  to  all  the 
other  Signatory  Powers  of  the  present  Act. 

The  ratifications  of  all  the  Powers  will  be  deposited  in  the  archives 
of  the  Government  of  the  German  Empire.  When  all  the  ratitications 
shall  have  been  sent  in,  there  will  be  drawn  up  a  Deposit  Act,  in  the 
shape  of  a  Protocol,  to  be  signed  by  the  Representatives  of  all  the 
Powers  which  have  taken  part  in  the  Conference  of  Berlin,  and  of 
which  a  certified  copy  will  be  sent  to  each  of  those  Powers. 

In  testimony  whereof  the  several  Plenipotentiaries  have  signed  the 
present  General  Act  and  have  affixed  thereto  their  seals. 

Done  at  Berlin  the  26th  day  of  February,  1885. 

(Here  follow  the  signatures  of  the  Plenipotentiaries  in 
the  order  of  their  names  in  the  preamble.) 

THE  TEXT  OF  THE  DECLARATIONS  AND  TREATIES 
BETWEEN  THE  INTERNATIONAL  ASSOCIATION 
OF  THE  CONGO  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURS,  GER- 
MANY, GREAT  BRITAIN,  FRANCE,  AND  POR- 
TUGAL. ALSO  ITS  DECLARATION  EXCHANGED 
WITH  BELGIUM. 

On  8th  November,  1884,  a  convention  was  con- 
cluded between  the  German  Empire  and  the  Associa- 
tion.    The  following  are  its  terms : 

Article  i.  The  International  Association  of  the  Congo  engages 
not  to  levy  any  duty  on  articles  or  merchandise  imported  directly  or 
in  transit  into  its  present  or  future  possessions  in  the  basins  of  the 
Congo  and  the  Niadi-Kwilu,  or  into  its  possessions  situated  on  the 
Atlantic  Ocean.  This  exemption  from  duties  especially  applies  to 
merchandise  and  articles  of  commerce  which  are  carried  by  the  roads 
made  round  the  cataracts  of  the  Congo 

Article  2.  The  subjects  of  the  German  Empire  shall  ha\-e  the 
right  of  sojourning  and  of  establishing  themselves  on  the  territories 
of  the  Association.  They  shall  be  treated  on  the  same  footing  as  the 
subjects  of  the  most  favoured  nation,  including  the  inhabitants  of  the 
country,  so  far  as  concerns  the  protection  of  their  persons  and  posses- 
sions, the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  the  recognition  and  defence  of 
their  rights,  as  well  as  in  matters  of  navigation,  trade,  or  manufactures. 


Appendix  545 

Especially,  they  shall  have  the  right  of  buying,  selling,  and  leasing 
lands  and  buildings  situated  in  the  territories  of  the  Association,  of 
establishing  commercial  houses,  and  carrying  on  trade  or  the  coasting 
trade  under  the  German  flag. 

Article  3.  The  Association  engages  never  to  grant  any  privileges 
whatsoever  to  the  subjects  of  any  other  nation  without  their  being 
immediately  extended  to  German  subjects. 

Article  4.  In  the  event  of  the  cession  of  the  present  or  future 
territory  of  the  Association,  or  of  any  part  of  it,  the  obligations  con- 
tracted by  the  Association  towards  the  German  Empire  shall  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  occupier.  These  obligations  and  the  rights  granted  by 
the  Association  to  the  German  Empire  and  its  subjects  shall  remain 
in  force  after  every  cession  as  far  as  regards  each  new  occupier. 

Article  5.  The  German  Empire  recognises  the  flag  of  the  Associa- 
tion— a  blue  flag  with  a  golden  star  in  the  centre — as  that  of  a  friendly 
State. 

Article  6.  The  German  Empire  is  ready  on  its  part  to  recognise 
the  frontiers  of  the  territory  of  the  Association  and  of  the  new  State 
which  is  to  be  created,  as  they  are  shown  in  the  annexed  Map. 

Article  7.  This  Convention  shall  be  ratified  and  the  ratifications 
shall  be  exchanged  with  the  least  possible  delay. 

This  Convention  shall  come  into  force  immediately  after  the  ex- 
change of  the  ratifications. 

Done  at  Berlin  the  8th  November,  1884. 

(Signed)  Count  v.  Brandenbourg. 
Strauch. 

On  1 6th  December,  1884,  Great  Britain  and  the 
International  Association  of  the  Congo  exchanged 
declarations  and  concluded  a  Convention.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  declaration  of  the  Association: 

The  International  Association  of  the  Congo,  founded  by  His  Majesty 
the  King  of  the  Belgians  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  civilisation 
and  commerce  of  Africa,  and  for  other  humane  and  benevolent  pur- 
poses, hereby  declares  as  follows: — 

Article  i.  That  by  Treaties  with  the  legitimate  Sovereigns  in  the 
basins  of  the  Congo  and  of  the  Niadi-Kwilu,  and  in  adjacent  territories 
upon  the  Atlantic,  there  has  been  ceded  to  it  territory  for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  Free  States  established,  and  being  established,  in  the  said 
basins  and  adjacent  territories. 

Article  2.  That  by  virtue  of  the  said  Treaties,  the  administration 
of  the  interests  of  the  said  Free  States  is  vested  in  the  Association, 


54^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Article  3.  That  the  Association  has  adopted  as  its  standard,  and 
that  of  the  said  Free  States,  a  blue  flag  with  a  golden  star  in  the  centre. 

Article  4.  That  with  a  view  of  enabling  commerce  to  penetrate 
into  Equatorial  Africa,  the  Association  and  the  said  Free  States  have 
resolved  to  levy  no  customs  duties  upon  goods  or  articles  of  merchan- 
dise imported  directly  into  their  territories  or  brought  by  the  route 
which  has  been  constructed  around  the  cataracts  of  the  Congo. 

Article  5.  That  the  Association  and  the  said  Free  States  guaran- 
tee to  foreigners  established  in  their  territories  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion,  the  rights  of  navigation,  commerce,  and  industry,  and  the 
right  of  buying,  selling,  letting,  and  hiring  lands,  buildings,  mines,  and 
forests,  on  the  sole  condition  that  they  shall  obey  the  laws. 

Article  6.  That  the  Association  and  the  said  free  States  will  do 
all  in  their  power  to  prevent  the  Slave  Trade  and  to  suppress  slavery. 

Done  at  Berlin,  the  i6th  December,  1884. 

(On  behalf  of  the  Association), 

(Signed)     Strauch. 

The  declaration  of  the  British  Government  was  as 
follows : 

The  Government  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty  declare  their  sympathy 
with,  and  approval  of,  the  humane  and  benevolent  purposes  of  the 
Association,  and  hereby  recognise  the  flag  of  the  Association,  and  of 
the  Free  States  under  its  administration,  as  the  flag  of  a  friendly 

Government. 

(On  behalf  of  Her  Majesty's  Government), 

Edward  B.  Malet. 

The  Convention  itself  was  couched  in  the  following 
terms: 

Whereas  the  Government  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty  have  recognised 
the  flag  of  the  International  Association  of  the  Congo,  and  of  the  Free 
States  under  its  administration,  as  the  flag  of  a  friendly  Government; 

And  whereas  it  is  expedient  to  regulate  and  define  the  rights  of 
British  subjects  in  the  territories  of  the  said  Free  States,  and  to  provide 
for  the  exercise  of  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction  over  them,  in  manner 
hereinafter  mentioned,  until  sufficient  provision  shall  have  been  made 
by  the  Association  for  the  administration  of  justice  among  foreigners; 

It  is  hereby  agreed  as  follows : — 

Article  i.  The  International  Association  of  the  Congo  imdertakes 
not  to  levy  any  duty,  import  or  transit,  on  articles  or  merchandise 


Appendix  547 

imported  by  British  subjects  into  the  said  territories,  or  into  any 
territory  which  may  hereafter  come  under  its  government.  This 
freedom  from  custom-house  duties  shall  extend  to  merchandise  and 
articles  of  commerce  which  shall  be  transported  along  the  roads  or 
canals  constructed,  or  to  be  constructed,  around  the  cataracts  of  the 
Congo. 

Article  2.  British  subjects  shall  have  at  all  times  the  right  of 
sojourning  and  of  establishing  themselves  within  the  territories  which 
are  or  shall  be  under  the  Government  of  the  said  Association.  They 
shall  enjoy  the  same  protection  which  is  accorded  to  the  subjects  or 
citizens  of  the  most  favoured  nation  in  all  matters  which  regard  their 
persons,  their  property,  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  the 
rights  of  navigation,  commerce,  and  industry.  Especially  they  shall 
have  the  right  of  buying,  of  selling,  of  letting,  and  of  hiring  lands  and 
buildings,  mines,  and  forests,  situated  within  the  said  territories,  and 
of  founding  houses  of  commerce,  and  of  carrying  on  commerce  and  a 
coasting  trade  under  the  British  flag. 

Article  3.  The  Association  engages  itself  not  to  accord  any 
advantages  whatsoever  to  the  subjects  of  any  other  nation  without 
the  same  advantages  being  extended  to  British  subjects. 

Article  4.  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
may  appoint  Consuls  or  other  Consular  Officers  to  reside  at  ports  or 
stations  within  the  said  territories,  and  the  Association  engages  itself 
to  protect  them. 

Article  5.  Every  British  Consul  or  Consular  Officer  within  the 
said  territories,  who  shall  be  thereunto  duly  authorised  by  Her  Bri- 
tannic Majesty's  Government,  may  hold  a  Consular  Court  for  the  dis- 
trict assigned  to  him,  and  shall  exercise  sole  and  exclusive  jurisdiction, 
both  civil  and  criminal,  over  the  persons  and  property  of  British  sub- 
jects within  the  same,  in  accordance  with  British  law. 

Article  6.  Nothing  in  the  last  preceding  Article  contained  shall 
be  deemed  to  relieve  any  British  subject  from  the  obligation  to  ob- 
serve the  laws  of  the  said  Free  States  applicable  to  foreigners,  but  any 
infraction  thereof  by  a  British  subject  shall  be  justiciable  only  by  a 
British  Consular  Court. 

Article  7.  Inhabitants  of  the  said  territories  who  are  subject  to 
the  Government  of  the  Association,  if  they  shall  commit  any  wrong 
against  the  person  or  property  of  a  British  subject,  shall  be  arrested 
and  punished  by  the  authorities  of  the  Association  according  to  the 
laws  of  the  said  Free  States. 

Justice  shall  be  equitably  and  impartially  administered  on  both 
sides. 

Article  8.  A  British  subject,  having  reason  to  complain  against 
an  inhaV)itant  of  the  said  territories,  who  is  subject  to  the  Government 
of  the  Association,  must  proceed  to  the  British  Consulate,  and  there 


548  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

state  his  grievance.  The  Consul  shall  inquire  into  the  merits  of  the 
case,  and  do  his  utmost  to  arrange  it  amicably.  In  like  manner,  if 
any  such  inhabitant  of  the  said  territories  shall  have  reason  to  com- 
plain against  a  British  subject,  the  British  Consul  shall  no  less  listen 
to  his  complaint  and  endeavour  to  settle  it  in  a  friendly  manner.  If 
disputes  take  place  of  such  a  nature  that  the  Consul  cannot  arrange 
them  amicably,  then  he  shall  request  the  assistance  of  the  authorities 
of  the  Association  to  examine  into  the  merits  of  the  case  and  decide  it 
equitably. 

Article  9.  Should  any  inhabitant  of  the  said  territories,  who  is 
subject  to  the  Government  of  the  Association,  fail  to  discharge  any 
debt  incurred  to  a  British  subject,  the  authorities  of  the  Association 
will  do  their  utmost  to  bring  him  to  justice,  and  to  enforce  recovery 
of  the  said  debt;  and  should  any  British  subject  fail  to  discharge  a 
debt  incurred  by  him  to  any  such  inhabitant,  the  British  authorities 
will  in  like  manner  do  their  utmost  to  bring  him  to  justice,  and  to 
enforce  recovery  of  the  debt.  No  British  Consul  nor  any  authority 
of  the  Association  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  the  payment  of  any 
debt  contracted  either  by  a  British  subject  or,  by  any  inhabitant 
of  the  said  territories,  who  is  subject  to  the  Government  of  the  Asso- 
ciation. 

Article  10.  In  case  of  the  Association  being  desirous  to  cede  any 
portion  of  the  territory  now  or  hereafter  under  its  Government,  it 
shall  not  cede  it  otherwise  than  as  subject  to  all  the  engagements  con- 
tracted by  the  Association  under  this  Convention.  Those  engage- 
ments, and  the  rights  thereby  accorded  to  British  subjects,  shall  con- 
tinue to  be  in  vigour  after  every  cession  made  to  any  new  occupant  of 
any  portion  of  the  said  territory. 

This  Convention  shall,  be  ratified,  and  the  ratifications  shall  be  ex- 
changed with  the  least  possible  delay.  It  shall  come  into  operation 
immediately  upon  the  exchange  of  ratifications. 

Done  at  Berlin  the  i6th  December,  1884. 

(Signed)     Edward  B.  Malet. 
Strauch. 

On  5th  February,  1885,  was  concluded  a  Conven- 
tion with  the  French  Repubhc. 

Article  i.  The  International  Association  of  the  Congo  hereby 
declares  that  it  extends  to  France  the  privileges  it  has  conceded  to 
the  United  States  of  America,  the  German  Empire,  England,  Italy, 
Austria- Hungary,  the  Netherlands,  and  Spain,  in  virtue  of  the  Con- 
ventions which  it  concluded  with  those  Powers  respectively  on  the 
22nd  April,  8th  November,   i6th,   19th,   24th,  and  29th  December, 


Appendix  549 


1884,  and  7th  January,   1885,  the  text  of  which  is  annexed  to  the 
present  Convention. 

Article  2.  The  Association  engages  moreover  never  to  grant  any 
privileges  whatever  to  the  subjects  of  any  other  nation  without  their 
being  immediately  extended  to  French  citizens. 

Article  3.  The  Government  of  the  French  Repviblic  and  the  As- 
sociation adopt  as  frontiers  between  their  possessions : — 

The  River  Chiloango  from  the  ocean  to  its  northernmost  source; 

The  water-parting  of  the  waters  of  the  Niadi  Quilloo  and  the  Congo 
as  far  as  beyond  the  meridian  of  Manyanga; 

A  line  to  be  settled,  which,  following  as  far  as  possible  some  natural 
division  of  the  land,  shall  end  between  the  station  of  Manyanga  and 
the  cataract  of  the  Ntombo  Mataka,  at  a  point  situated  on  the  naviga- 
ble portion  of  the  river; 

The  Congo  up  to  Stanley  Pool; 

The  centre  of  Stanley  Pool; 

The  Congo  up  to  a  point  to  be  settled  above-  the  River  Licona- 
Nkundja; 

A  line  to  be  settled  from  that  point  to  the  17th  degree  of  longitude 
east  of  Greenwich,  following,  as  closelj^  as  possible,  the  water-parting 
of  the  basin  of  the  Licona-Nkundja,  which  is  part  of  the  French  pos- 
sessions ; 

The  17th  degree  of  longitude  east  of  Greenwich. 

Article  4.  A  Commission,  composed  of  an  equal  number  on  each 
side  of  Representatives  of  the  two  parties,  shall  be  intrusted  with  the 
duty  of  marking  out  on  the  spot  a  frontier-line  in  conformity  with  the 
preceding  stipulations.  In  case  of  a  difference  of  opinion,  the  question 
shall  be  settled  by  Delegates,  who  shall  be  named  by  the  International 
Commission  of  the  Congo. 

Article  5.  Subject  to  the  arrangements  to  be  made  between  the 
International  Association  of  the  Congo  and  Portugal  as  to  the  terri- 
tories situated  to  the  south  of  the  Chiloango,  the  Government  of  the 
French  Republic  is  disposed  to  recognise  the  neutrality  of  the  posses- 
sions of  the  International  Association  comprised  within  the  frontiers 
marked  on  the  annexed  Map,  conditionally  upon  discussing  and  regu- 
lating the  conditions  of  such  neutrality  in  common  with  the  other 
Powers  represented  at  the  Berlin  Conference. 

Article  6.  The  Government  of  the  French  Republic  recognises 
the  flag  of  the  International  Association  of  the  Congo — a  blue  flag 
with  a  golden  star  in  the  centre — as  the  flag  of  a  friendly  Government. 

In  testimony  whereof  the  respective  Plenipotentiaries  have  signed 
the  present  Convention  and  have  affixed  thereunto  their  seals. 

Done  at  Paris  the  5th  February,  1885. 
(L.  S.)  (Signed)  Jules  Ferry. 
(L.  S.)     (Signed)     Comte  Paul  de  Borchgrave  d'Altena. 


550  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  Convention  concluded  with  Portugal  is  dated 
14th  February,  1885. 

Article  i.  The  International  Association  of  the  Congo  hereby 
declares  that  it  extends  to  Portugal  the  privileges  it  has  conceded  to 
the  United  States  of  America,  the  German  Empire,  England,  Italy, 
Austria-Hungary,  the  Netherlands,  Spain,  France,  and  the  United 
Kingdoms  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  in  virtue  of  the  Conventions  which 
it  concluded  with  the  Powers  respectively  on  the  22nd  April,  8th  No- 
vember, 1 6th,  19th,  24th,  and  29th  December,  1884,  7th  January  and 
5th  and  loth  February,  1885,  certified  copies  of  which  the  Association 
engages  to  transmit  to  the  Government  of  His  Most  Faithful  Majesty. 

Article  2.  The  International  Association  of  the  Congo  engages 
moreover  never  to  grant  any  privileges  whatsoever  to  the  subjects 
of  any  other  nation  without  their  being  immediately  extended  to  the 
subjects  of  His  Most  Faithful  Majesty. 

Article  3.  The  International  Association  of  the  Congo  and  His 
Most  Faithful  Majesty  the  King  of  Portugal  and  the  Algarves  adopt 
the  following  frontiers  between  their  possessions  in  West  Africa, 
namely : — 

To  the  north  of  the  River  Congo  (Zaire)  the  right  frontier  joining 
the  mouth  of  the  river  which  empties  itself  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
to  the  south  of  the  Bay  of  Kabinda,  near  Ponta  Vermelha,  at  Cabo- 
Lombo ; 

The  parallel  of  this  latter  point  prolonged  till  it  intersects  the 
meridian  of  the  junction  of  the  Culacalla  with  the  Luculla; 

The  meridian  thus  fixed  until  it  meets  the  River  Luculla; 

The  course  of  the  Luculla  to  its  junction  with  the  Chiloango  (Luango 
Luce) ; 

The  course  of  the  Congo  (Zaire)  from  its  mouth  to  its  junction  with 
the  little  River  Uango-Uango; 

The  meridian  which  passes  by  the  mouth  of  the  little  River  Uango- 
Uango  between  the  Dutch  and  Portuguese  factories,  so  as  to  leave  the 
latter  in  Portuguese  territory,  till  this  meridian  touches  the  parallel  of 
Nokki; 

The  parallel  of  Nokki  till  the  point  where  it  intersects  the  River 
Kuango  (Cuango) ; 

From  this  point,  in  a  southerly  direction,  the  course  of  the  Kuango 
(Cuango). 

Article  4.  A  Commission,  composed  of  an  equal  number  on  each 
side  of  Representatives  of  the  two  sides,  shall  be  intrusted  with  the 
duty  of  marking  out  on  the  spot  a  frontier-line  in  conformity  with  the 
preceding  stipulations.  In  case  of  a  difference  of  opinion,  the  ques- 
tion shall  be  settled  by  Delegates  who  shall  be  named  by  the  Interna- 
tional Commission  of  the  Congo. 


Appendix  551 

Article  5.  His  Most  Faithful  Majesty  the  King  of  Portugal  and 
the  Algarves  is  inclined  to  recognise  the  neutrality  of  the  possessions 
of  the  International  Association  of  the  Congo,  conditionally  upon  dis- 
cussing and  regulating  the  conditions  of  such  neutrality  in  common 
with  the  other  Powers  represented  at  the  Berlin  Conference. 

Article  6.  His  Most  Faithful  Majesty  the  King  of  Portugal  and 
the  Algarves  recognises  the  flag  of  the  International  Association  of  the 
Congo — a  blue  flag  with  a  golden  star  in  the  centre — as  the  flag  of  a 
friendly  Government. 

Article  7.  The  present  Convention  shall  be  ratified,  and  the  rati- 
fications shall  be  exchanged  at  Paris  within  three  months,  or  a  shorter 
time  if  possible. 

In  testimony  of  which  the  Plenipotentiaries  of  the  two  Contracting 
Parties,  as  well  as  his  Excellency  Baron  de  Courcel,  Ambassador 
Extraordinary  and  Plenipotentiary  of  France  at  Berlin,  as  represent- 
ing the  mediatory  Power,  have  signed  and  affixed  their  seal  to  the 
present  Convention. 

Done  in  triplicate  at  Berlin  this  14th  day  of  the  month  of  February, 
1885. 

(Signed)     Strauch. 

Marquis  de  Penafiel. 
Alph.  de  Courcel. 


Declarations  were  exchanged  between  the  Belgian 
Government  and  the  Association  on  25th  February, 
1885. 

The  International  Association  of  the  Congo  declares  by  these 
presents  that,  by  Treaties  concluded  with  the  legitimate  Sovereigns  in 
the  basin  of  the  Congo  and  its  tributaries,  vast  territories  have  been 
ceded  to  it  with  all  the  rights  of  sovereignty,  with  a  view  to  the  crea- 
tion of  a  free  and  independent  State ;  that  Conventions  mark  off  the 
frontiers  of  the  territories  of  the  Association  from  those  of  France  and 
Portugal,  and  that  the  frontiers  of  the  Association  are  shown  on  the 
annexed  Map; 

That  the  said  Association  has  adopted  as  the  flag  of  the  State  ad- 
ministered by  it  a  blue  flag  with  a  golden  star  in  the  centre; 

That  the  said  Association  has  resolved  not  to  levy  any  customs 
duties  on  goods  or  products  imported  into  its  territories  or  carried  by 
the  road  which  has  been  made  round  the  cataracts  of  the  Congo ;  this 
resolution  has  been  adopted  to  assist  commerce  to  penetrate  into 
Equatorial  Africa; 

That  it  insures  foreigners  who  may  establish  themselves  in  its  terri- 


552  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

tones  the  right  of  buying,  selHng,  or  leasing  lands  and  buildings  therein 
situated,  of  establishing  commercial  houses,  and  carrying  on  trade 
under  the  sole  condition  of  obeying  tlje  law.  It  engages,  moreover, 
never  to  grant  the  citizens  of  one  nation  any  privilege  whatever  with- 
out immediately  extending  it  to  the  citizens  of  all  other  nations,  and 
to  do  all  in  its  power  to  prevent  the  Slave  Trade. 

In  testimony  of  which  the  President  of  the  Association,  acting  in  its 
behalf,  has  hereunto  affixed  his  seal  and  signature. 

Berlin,  the  23rd  day  of  February,  1885. 

(Signed)        Strauch. 

The  Belgian  Government  takes  note  of  the  declarations  of  the 
International  Association  of  the  Congo,  and  by  these  presents  recog- 
nises the  Association  within  the  limits  indicated  by  it,  and  recognises 
its  flag  as  on  an  equality  with  that  of  a  friendly  State. 

In   testimony   of   which    the    Undersigned,    being   duly    authorised 
thereto,  have  hereunto  affixed  their  seal  and  signature. 
Berlin,  the  23rd  day  of  February,  1885. 

(Signed)        Comte  Auguste  van  der  Straten-Ponthoz. 
Baron  Lambermont. 

DECLARATION  OF  THE  GENERAL  ACT  OF  THE 
BRUSSELS  CONFERENCE,  JULY  2,  1890 

The  Powers  assembled  in  Conference  at  Brussels,  who  have  ratified 
the  General  Act  of  Berlin  of  the  26th  February,  1885,  or  who  have 
acceded  thereto. 

After  having  drawn  up  and  signed  in  concert,  in  the  General  Act  of 
this  day,  a  collection  of  measures  intended  to  put  an  end  to  the  Negro 
Slave  Trade  by  land  as  well  as  by  sea,  and  to  improve  the  moral  and 
material  conditions  of  existence  of  the  native  races; 

Taking  into  consideration  that  the  execution  of  the  provisions  which 
they  have  adopted  with  this  object  imposes  on  some  of  them  who 
have  possessions  or  Protectorates  in  the  conventional  basin  of  the 
Congo  obligations  which  absolutely  demand  new  resources  to  meet 
them; 

Have  agreed  to  make  the  following  Declaration: — 

The  Signatory  or  adhering  Powers  who  have  possessions  or  Pro- 
tectorates in  the  said  conventional  basin  of  the  Congo  are  authorised, 
so  far  as  they  require  any  authority  for  the  purpose,  to  establish 
therein  dvities  upon  imported  goods,  the  scale  of  which  shall  not  ex- 
ceed a  rate  equivalent  to  10  per  cent,  "ad  valorem"  at  the  port  of 
entry,  always  excepting  spirituous  liquors,  which  are  regulated  by  the 
provisions  of  Chapter  VI.  of  the  General  Act  of  this  day. 


Appendix  553 

After  the  signature  of  the  said  General  Act,  negotiations  shall  be 
opened  between  the  Powers  who  have  ratified  the  General  Act  of 
Berlin  or  who  have  adhered  to  it,  in  order  to  draw  up,  within  the  maxi- 
mum limit  of  10  per  cent,  "ad  valorem"  the  conditions  of  the  Customs 
system  to  be  established  in  the  conventional  basin  of  the  Congo. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  understood: — 

1.  That  no  differential  treatment  or  transit  duty  shall  be  estab- 
lished ; 

2.  That  in  applying  the  Customs  system  which  may  be  agreed 
upon,  each  Power  will  undertake  to  simplify  fonnalities  as  much  as 
possible,  and  to  facilitate  trade  operations; 

3.  That  the  arrangement  resulting  from  the  proposed  negotiations 
shall  remain  in  force  for  fifteen  years  from  the  signature  of  the  present 
Declaration. 

At  the  expiration  of  this  period,  and  failing  a  fresh  Agreement,  the 
Contracting  Powers  shall  return  to  the  conditions  provided  for  by 
Article  IV.  of  the  General  Act  of  Berlin,  retaining  the  power  of  im- 
posing duties  up  to  a  maximum  of  lo  per  cent,  upon  goods  imported 
into  the  conventional  basin  of  the  Congo. 

The  ratifications  of  the  present  Declaration  shall  be  exchanged  at 
the  same  time  as  those  of  the  General  Act  of  this  day. 

In  witness  whereof  the  undersigned  Plenipotentiaries  have  drawn 
up  the  present  Declaration,  and  have  affixed  thereto  their  seals. 

Done  at  Brussels,  the  2nd  day  of  the  month  of  July,  1890. 

[L.  S.]  Vivian,  John  Kirk,  Alvensleben,  Gohring,  R.  Khevenhiiller, 
Lambermont,  E.  Banning,  Schack  de  Brockdorff ,  J.  G.  de  Aguera,  Edm. 
van  Eetvelde,  A.  van  Malgeghem,  A.  Bouree,  G.  Cogordan,  F.  de  Ren- 
zis,  T.  Catalani,  L.  Gericke,  Henrique  de  Macedo,  Pereiro  Coutinho, 
L.  Ouroussoff ,  Martens,  Burenstam,  Et  Caratheodory. 


TREATY  OF  AMITY,  COMMERCE,  AND  NAVIGATION 

His  Majesty  Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  Sovereign  of 
THE  Independent  State  of  the  Congo,  and 

The  United  States  of  America, 
desiring  to  perpetuate,  confirm  and  encourage  the  relations  of  com- 
merce and  of  good  understanding  existing  already  between  the  two 
respective  countries,  by  the  conclusion  of  a  treaty  of  amity,  com- 
merce, navigation  and  extradition,  have  for  this  purpose  named  as 
their  respective  Plenipotentiaries,  viz. : 

His  Majesty  Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  Sovereign  of 
the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo, 

Edm.  van  Eetvelde,  Administrator  General  of  the  Department  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  Otficcr  of  His  Order  of  Leopold,  and 


554  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

His  Excellency  the  President  of  the  United  States  op 
America, 

Edwin  H.  Terrell,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary of  the  United  States  of  America  near  His  Majesty  the  King  of 
the  Belgians,  who,  after  having  communicated  to  each  other  their  full 
powers,  found  in  good  and  due  form,  have  agreed  upon  the  following 
articles : 

Article  I. — There  shall  be  full,  entire  and  reciprocal  liberty  of  com- 
merce, establishment  and  navigation  between  the  citizens  and  inhab- 
itants of  the  two  High  contracting  Parties. 

The  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo 
in  the  United  States  of  America  and  those  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  the  independent  State  of  the  Congo  shall  have  reciprocally 
the  right,  on  conforming  to  the  laws  of  the  country,  to  enter,  travel 
and  reside  in  all  parts  of  their  respective  territories ;  to  carry  on  busi- 
ness there;  and  they  shall  enjoy  in  this  respect  for  the  protection  of 
their  persons  and  their  property  the  same  treatment  and  the  same 
rights  as  the  natives,  or  the  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  the  most 
favoured  nation. 

They  can  freely  exercise  their  industry  or  their  business,  as  well 
wholesale  as  retail,  in  the  whole  extent  of  the  territories,  without 
being  subjected  as  to  their  persons  or  their  property,  or  by  reason  of 
their  business,  to  any  taxes,  general  or  local,  imposts  or  conditions 
whatsoever  other  or  more  onerous  than  those  which  are  imposed  or 
may  be  imposed  upon  the  natives  other  than  non-civilised  aborigines, 
or  upon  the  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  the  most  favoured  nation. 

In  like  manner,  they  will  enjoy  reciprocally  the  treatment  of  the 
most  favoured  nation  in  all  that  relates  to  rights,  privileges,  exemp- 
tions and  immunities  whatsoever  concerning  their  persons  or  their 
property  and  in  the  matter  of  commerce,  industry  and  navigation. 

Article  II. — In  all  that  concerns  the  acquisition,  succession,  pos- 
session and  alienation  of  property,  real  and  personal,  the  citizens  and 
inhabitants  of  each  of  the  High  contracting  Parties  shall  enjoy  in  the 
territories  of  the  other  all  the  rights  which  the  respective  laws  accord 
or  shall  accord  in  those  territories  to  the  citizens  and  inhabitants  of 
the  most  favoured  nation. 

Article  III. — The  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  each  of  the  High 
contracting  Parties  shall  be  exempt  in  the  territories  of  the  other 
from  all  personal  service  in  the  army,  navy,  or  militia,  and  from  all 
pecuniary  contributions  in  lieu  of  such,  as  well  as  from  all  obligatory 
oflficial  functions  whatever,  except  the  obligation  of  sitting,  within  a 
radius  of  one  hundred  kilometres  from  the  place  of  their  residence,  as 
a  juror  in  judicial  proceedings;  furthermore,  their  property  shall  not 
be  taken  for  the  public  service  without  an  ample  and  sufficient  com- 
pensation. 


Appendix  555 


They  shall  have  free  access  to  the  courts  of  the  other,  on  conforming 
to  the  laws  regulating  the  matter,  as  well  for  the  prosecution  as  for  the 
defence  of  their  rights,  in  all  the  degrees  of  jurisdiction  established  by 
law.  They  can  be  represented  by  lawyers,  and  they  shall  enjoy,  in 
this  respect,  and  in  what  concerns  domiciliary  visits  to  their  houses, 
manufactories,  stores,  warehouses,  etc.,  the  same  rights  and  the  same 
advantages  which  are  or  shall  be  granted  to  the  citizens  and  inhabit- 
ants of  the  most  favoured  nation,  or  to  natives. 

Article  IV. — The  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  the  two  countries 
shall  enjoy,  in  the  territory  of  the  other,  a  full  and  entire  liberty  of 
conscience.  They  shall  be  protected  in  the  free  exercise  of  their 
worship;  they  shall  have  the  right  to  erect  religious  edifices  and  to 
organise  and  maintain  missions. 

Article  V. — It  will  be  lawful  for  the  two  High  contracting  Parties 
to  appoint  and  establish  consuls,  vice  consuls,  deputy  consuls,  consular 
agents  and  commercial  agents  in  the  territories  of  the  other;  but  none 
of  these  agents  can  exercise  his  functions  before  having  received  the 
necessary  exequatur  from  the  Government  to  which  he  is  delegated. 

The  said  agents  of  each  of  the  two  High  contracting  Parties  shall 
enjoy,  in  the  territories  of  the  other,  upon  the  footing  of  a  complete 
reciprocity,  all  the  privileges,  immunities  and  rights  which  are  actually 
granted  to  those  of  the  most  favoured  nation  or  which  may  be  accorded 
to  them  hereafter. 

The  said  agents,  citizens  or  inhabitants  of  the  State  by  which  they 
are  appointed  shall  not  be  subject  to  preliminary  arrest,  except  in 
the  case  of  acts  qualified  as  crimes  by  the  local  legislation  and  pun- 
ished as  such.  They  shall  be  exempt  from  military  billeting  and 
from  service  in  the  army,  navy,  or  militia,  as  well  as  from  all  direct 
taxes,  unless  these  should  be  due  on  account  of  real  estate,  or,  unless 
the  said  agents  should  exercise  a  profession  or  business  of  any  kind. 

The  said  agents  can  raise  their  national  flag  over  their  offices. 

The  consular  offices  shall  be  at  all  times  inviolable.  The  local  au- 
thorities can  not  invade  them  under  any  pretext.  They  can  not  in 
any  case  examine  or  seize  the  papers  which  shall  be  there  deposited. 
The  consular  offices  can  not,  on  the  other  hand,  serve  as  place  of 
asylum,  and  if  an  agent  of  the  consular  service  is  engaged  in  business, 
commercial  or  other,  the  papers  relating  to  the  consulate  shall  be  kept 
separate. 

The  said  agents  shall  have  the  right  to  exercise  all  the  functions 
generally  appertaining  to  consuls,  especially  in  what  concerns  the 
legalisation  of  private  and  public  documents,  of  invoices  and  commer- 
cial contracts,  the  taking  of  depositions  and  the  right  of  authenticat- 
ing legal  acts  and  documents. 

The  said  agents  shall  have  the  right  to  address  the  administrative 
and  judicial  authorities  of  the  country  in  which  they  exercise  their 


55^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

functions  in  order  to  complain  of  any  infraction  of  the  treaties  or  con- 
ventions existing  between  the  two  Governments,  and  for  the  purpose 
of  protecting  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  citizens  and  inhabitants 
of  their  country.  They  shall  have  also  the  right  to  settle  all  differences 
arising  between  the  captains  or  the  officers  and  the  sailors  of  the  sea- 
vessels  of  their  nation.  The  local  authorities  shall  abstain  from 
interfering  in  these  cases  unless  the  maintenance  of  the  public  tran- 
quillity requires  it,  or,  unless  their  assistance  should  be  asked  by  the 
consular  authority  in  order  to  assure  the  execution  of  its  decisions. 

The  local  authorities  will  give  to  the  said  agents  and,  on  their  de- 
fault, to  the  captains  or  their  casual  representatives,  all  aid  for  the 
search  and  arrest  of  sailor  deserters,  who  shall  be  kept  and  guarded 
in  the  prisons  of  the  State  upon  the  requisition  and  at  the  expense  of 
the  consuls  or  of  the  captains,  during  a  maximum  delay  of  two 
months. 

Article  VI. — The  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  each  of  the  High 
contracting  Parties  shall  have  reciprocally,  according  to  the  same 
rights  and  conditions  and  with  the  same  privileges  as  those  of  the 
most  favoured  nation,  the  right  to  enter  with  their  vessels  and  cargoes 
into  all  the  ports  and  to  navigate  upon  all  the  rivers  and  interior 
waters  of  the  other  State. 

The  vessels  of  each  of  the  contracting  Parties  and  of  its  citizens  or 
inhabitants  can  freely  navigate  upon  the  waters  of  the  territory  of  the 
other,  without  being  subject  to  any  other  tolls,  charges  or  obligations 
than  those  which  the  vessels  belonging  to  the  citizens  or  inhabitants 
of  the  most  favoured  nation  would  have  to  bear. 

There  will  not  be  imposed  by  either  of  the  contracting  Parties  upon 
the  vessels  belonging  to  the  other  or  to  the  citizens  or  inhabitants  of 
the  other,  in  the  matter  of  tonnage,  port  charges,  pilotage,  lighthouse 
and  quarantine  dues,  salvage  of  vessels  and  other  administrative  ex- 
penses whatsoever  concerning  navigation,  any  taxes  or  charges  what- 
ever, other  or  higher  than  those  which  are  or  shall  be  imposed  upon 
the  public  or  private  vessels  of  the  most  favoured  nation. 

It  is  agreed  that  every  vessel  belonging  to  one  of  the  High  contract- 
ing Parties  or  to  a  citizen  or  inhabitant  of  one  of  them,  having  the 
right  to  bear  the  flag  of  that  country  and  having  the  right  to  its 
protection,  both  according  to  the  laws  of  that  country,  shall  be  con- 
sidered as  a  vessel  of  that  nationality. 

Article  VII. — In  what  concerns  the  freight  and  facilities  of  trans- 
portation, and  tolls,  the  merchandise  belonging  to  the  citizens  or  in- 
habitants of  one  of  the  contracting  States  transported  over  the  roads, 
railroads  and  waterways  of  the  other  State,  shall  be  treated  on  the 
same  footing  as  the  merchandise  belonging  to  the  citizens  or  inhabit- 
ants of  the  most  favoured  nation. 

Article  VIII. — In  the  territories  of  neither  of  the   High  contract- 


Appendix  557 

ing  Parties  shall  there  be  established  or  enforced  a  prohibition  against 
the  importation,  exportation  or  transit  of  any  article  of  legal  com- 
merce, produced  or  manufactured  in  the  territories  of  the  other,  unless 
this  prohibition  shall  equally  and  at  once  be  extended  to  all  other 
nations. 

Article  IX. — Relating  to  extraction  was  stricken  out  by  the 
Senate. 

Article  X. — The  Republic  of  the  United  States  of  America,  recog- 
nising that  it  is  just  and  necessary  to  facilitate  to  the  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo  the  accomplishment  of  the  obligations  which  it  has 
contracted  by  virtue  of  the  General  Act  of  Brussels  of  July  2nd,  1890, 
admits,  so  far  as  it  is  concerned,  that  import  duties  may  be  collected 
upon  merchandise  imported  into  the  said  State. 

The  tariff  of  these  duties  cannot  go  beyond  10  per  cent,  of  the  value 
of  the  merchandise  at  the  port  of  importation,  during  fifteen  years  to 
date  from  July  2nd,  1890,  except  for  spirits,  which  are  regulated  by 
the  provisions  of  Chapter  VI.  of  the  General  Act  of  Brussels. 

At  the  expiration  of  this  term  of  fifteen  years,  and  in  default  of  a 
new  accord,  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo  will  be  placed  as  to 
the  United  States  of  America  in  the  situation  which  existed  prior  to 
July  2nd,  1890;  the  right  to  impose  import  duties  to  a  maximum  of 
10  per  cent,  upon  merchandise  imported  into  the  said  State  remaining 
acquired  to  it,  on  the  conditions  and  within  the  limitations  determined 
in  Articles  XL  and  XII.  of  this  treaty. 

Article  XI. — The  United  States  shall  enjoy  in  the  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo,  as  to  the  import  duties,  all  the  advantages  ac- 
corded to  the  most  favoured  nation. 

It  has  been  agreed  besides: 

1.  That  no  differential  treatment  nor  transit  duty  can  be  estab- 
lished ; 

2.  That  in  the  application  of  the  tariff  regime  which  will  be  intro- 
duced, the  Congo  State  will  apply  itself  to  simplify,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  formalities  and  to  facilitate  the  operations  of  commerce. 

Article  XII. — Considering  the  hict  that  in  Article  X.  of  the  present 
treaty,  the  United  States  of  America  have  given  their  assent  to  the 
establishment  of  import  duties  in  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo 
under  certain  conditions,  it  is  well  understood  that  the  said  Inde- 
pendent State  of  the  Congo  assures  to  the  flag,  to  the  vessels,  to 
the  commerce  and  to  the  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  in  all  parts  of  the  territories  of  that  State,  all 
the  rights,  privileges  and  immunities  concerning  import  and  export 
duties,  tariff  regime,  interior  taxes  and  charges  and,  in  a  general 
manner,  all  commercial  interests,  which  are  or  shall  be  accorded  to 
the  Signatory  Powers  of  the  Act  of  Berlin,  or  to  the  most  favoured 
nation. 


55^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Article  XIII. — In  case  a  difference  should  arise  between  the  two 
High  contracting  Parties  as  to  the  validity,  interpretation,  application 
or  enforcement  of  any  of  the  provisions  contained  in  the  present 
treaty,  and  it  could  not  be  arranged  amicably  by  diplomatic  corre- 
spondence between  the  two  Governments,  these  last  agree  to  submit 
it  to  the  judgment  of  an  arbitration  tribunal,  the  decision  of  which 
they  bind  themselves  to  respect  and  execute  loyally. 

The  tribunal  will  be  composed  of  three  members.  Each  of  the  two 
High  contracting  Parties  will  designate  one  of  them,  selected  out- 
side of  the  citizens  and  the  inhabitants  of  either  of  the  contracting 
States  and  of  Belgiuin.  The  High  contracting  Parties  will  ask,  by 
common  accord,  a  friendly  Government  to  appoint  the  third  arbi- 
trator, to  be  selected  equally  outside  of  the  two  contracting  States  and 
of  Belgitmi. 

If  an  arbitrator  should  be  unable  to  sit  by  reason  of  death,  resigna- 
tion, or  for  any  other  cause,  he  shall  be  replaced  by  a  new  arbitrator 
whose  appointment  shall  be  made  in  the  same  manner  as  that  of  the 
arbitrator  whose  place  he  takes. 

The  majority  of  arbitrators  can  act  in  case  of  the  intentional  ab- 
sence or  formal  withdrawal  of  the  minority.  The  decision  of  the 
majority  of  the  arbitrators  will  be  conclusive  upon  all  questions  to  be 
determined. 

The  general  expenses  of  the  arbitration  procedure  will  be  borne,  in 
equal  parts,  by  the  two  High  contracting  Parties;  but  the  expenses 
made  by  either  of  the  parties  for  preparing  and  setting  forth  its  case 
will  be  at  the  cost  of  that  party. 

Article  XIV. — It  is  well  understood  that  if  the  declaration  on  the 
subject  of  the  import  duties,  signed  July  2nd,  1890,  by  the  Signatory 
Powers  of  the  Act  of  Berlin,  should  not  enter  into  force,  in  that  case, 
the  present  treaty  would  be  absolutely  null  and  without  effect. 

Article  XV. — The  present  treaty  shall  be  subject  to  the  approval 
and  the  ratification,  on  the  one  hand,  of  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  Sovereign  of  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo,  and  on 
the  other  hand,  of  His  Excellency  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
acting  by  the  advice  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate. 

The  ratifications  of  the  present  treaty  shall  be  exchanged  at  the 
same  time  as  those  of  the  General  Act  of  Brussels  of  July  2nd,  1890, 
and  it  will  enter  into  force  at  the  same  date  as  the  latter. 

In  faith  of  which  the  respective  Plenipotentiaries  of  the  High  con- 
tracting Parties  have  signed  the  present  treaty,  in  duplicate,  in  French 
and  in  English,  and  have  attached  thereto  their  seals. 

Done  at  Brussels,  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  the  month  of  January 
of  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-one. 

[S.]     Edm.  van  Eetvelde.  [S.]     Edwin  H.  Terrell. 


Appendix  559 

RATIFICATION  BY  THE  UNITED  STATES 

And  whereas  the  said  Treaty  has  been  duly  ratified  on  both  parts, 
and  the  ratifications  of  the  two  Governments  were  exchanged  in  the 
city  of  Brussels,  on  the  2nd  day  of  February,  1892, 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I,  Benjamin  Harrison,  President 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  have  caused  the  said  Treaty  to  be 
made  public  as  amended,  to  the  end  that  the  same  and  every  article 
and  clause  thereof  may  be  observed  and  fulfilled  with  good  faith  by 
the  United  States  and  the  citizens  thereof. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington  this  second  day  of  April  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-two,  and  of  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States  the  one  hundred  and  sixteenth. 
[seal]  Benj.  Harrison. 

By  the  President. 

James  G.  Blaine, 

Secretary  of  State. 

PROTOCOL  RECORDING  THE  RATIFICATION  BY  THE 
UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA  OF  THE  GENERAL 
ACT  OF  BRUSSELS  OF  JULY  2,  1890— SIGNED  AT 
BRUSSELS,  FEBRUARY  2,  1892 

On  the  2nd  February,  1892,  in  conformity  with  Article  XCIX.  of 
the  General  Act  of  the  2nd  July,  1890,  and  with  the  imanimous  de- 
cision of  the  Signatory  Powers  prolonging  till  the  2nd  February,  1892, 
in  favour  of  the  United  States,  the  period  fixed  by  the  said  Article 
XCIX.,  the  Undersigned,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipo- 
tentiary of  the  United  States  of  America,  deposited  in  the  hands  of 
the  Belgian  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  the  Ratification  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  of  the  said  General  Act. 

At  His  Excellency's  request  the  following  Resolution  whereby  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  consented  to  the  Ratification  of  the 
President,  was  inserted  in  the  present  Protocol: — 

"Resolved  (two- thirds  of  the  Senators  present  concurring  therein), 

"That  the  Senate  advise  and  consent  to  the  ratification  of  the 
General  Act  signed  at  Brussels  on  the  2nd  July,  1890,  by  the  Plenipo- 
tentiaries of  the  United  States  and  other  Powers,  for  the  suppression 
of  the  African  Slave  Trade,  and  for  other  purposes. 

''Resolved  further:  That  the  Senate  advise  and  consent  to  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  partial  ratification  of  the  said  General  Act  on  the  part 


560  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

of  the  French  RcpubUc,  and  to  the  stipulations  relative  thereto,  as  set 
forth  in  the  Protocol  signed  at  Brussels  on  the  2nd  February,  1892. 

"Resolved  further,  as  a  part  of  this  act  of  ratification.  That  the 
United  States  of  America,  having  neither  Possessions  nor  Protectorates 
in  Africa,  hereby  disclaims  any  intention,  in  ratifying  this  Treaty,  to 
indicate  any  interest  whatsoever  in  the  Possessions  or  Protectorates 
established  or  claimed  on  that  Continent  by  the  other  Powers,  or  any 
approval  of  the  wisdom,  expediency,  or  lawfulness  thereof,  and  does 
not  join  in  any  expressions  in  the  said  General  Act  which  might  be 
construed  as  such  a  declaration  or  acknowledgment;  and,  for  this 
reason,  that  it  is  desirable  that  a  copy  of  this  Resolution  be  inserted 
in  the  Protocol  to  be  drawn  up  at  the  time  of  the  exchange  of  the 
ratifications  of  this  Treaty  on  the  part  of  the  United  States." 

The  above  Resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  having 
been  textually  communicated  in  advance  by  the  Government  of 
Belgium  to  all  the  Signatory  Powers  of  the  General  Act,  the  latter 
have  assented  to  its  insertion  in  the  present  Protocol  which  shall 
remain  annexed  to  the  Protocol  of  the  2nd  February,  1892. 

An  official  notification  to  this  effect  was  made  to  the  United  States 
Minister. 

The  Ratification  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  having  been 
found  in  good  and  due  form,  notification  of  its  deposit  was  made  to 
his  Excellency  Mr.  Edwin  H.  Terrell.  It  will  be  retained  in  the 
archives  of  the  Belgian  Foreign  Office. 

On  proceeding  to  the  signature  of  the  present  Protocol  the  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs  of  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Belgians  announced 
that  the  Representative  of  Russia,  in  his  note  expressing  the  assent 
of  his  Government,  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  was  desirable  that, 
in  the  Protocol,  a  French  translation  should  accompany  the  English 
text  of  the  Resolution  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
and  that,  in  any  case,  the  absence  of  such  translation  should  not  form 
a  precedent. 

A  certified  copy  of  the  present  Protocol  will  be  sent  by  the  Belgian 
Government  to  the  Signatory  Powers  of  the  General  Act. 

Done  at  Brussels  the  2nd  February,  1892. 
The  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs, 

(Signed)         Prince  de  Chimay. 
The  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the 
United  States  of  America, 

-     (Signed)         Edwin  H.  Terrell. 


Appendix  561 

DISPATCH  FROM  HIS  MAJESTY'S  MINISTER  AT 
BRUSSELS  RESPECTING  THE  COMMISSION  FOR 
THE  PROTECTION  OF  THE  NATIVES,  INSTI- 
TUTED BY  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  INDE- 
PENDENT CONGO  STATE  UNDER  THE  DECREE 
OF  SEPTEMBER  18,   1896 

Sir  C.  Phipps  to  the  Marquess  of  Lansdowne. — (Received  May  19.) 

(Extract.) 

Brussels,  May  18,  1903. 

M.  De  Cuvelier  handed  to  me  this  morning  the  documents  here- 
with inclosed  on  the  subject  of  the  working  of  the  Commission  for  the 
Protection  of  the  Natives,  instituted  by  the  Congo  State  Government 
under  the  Decree  of  the  i8th  September,  1896,  which  had  been  col- 
lected and  prepared  for  me  in  consequence  of  my  request  made  to 
that  effect  the  day  before  yesterday. 

Your  Lordship  will  observe  that  the  Congo  Government  pxaces  at 
my  disposal,  without  concealment,  the  whole  correspondence  whic);! 
has  passed  in  regard  to  the  Commission  under  discussion,  including 
dispatches  not  intended  for  publication.  It  undoubtedly  leads  to  the 
conclusion  that,  if  the  operation  of  the  Commission  has  not  been  so 
effective  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  the  fault  has  rather  been  due 
to  the  great  extent  of  territory  which  it  had  the  duty  to  watch,  and  to 
the  considerable  distances  by  which  its  members  were  separated,  and 
not  to  any  deficiency  of  conception  or  absence  of  energy  on  the  part 
of  the  Central  Government. 

SETTLEMENTS  FOR  NATIVE  CHILDREN 

Leopold  IL,  King  of  the  Belgians,  Sovereign  of  the  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo, 

To  all  present  and  to  come,  greeting: 

Whereas  it  is  expedient  to  make  provision  for  the  protection  of 
those  children  who  have  been  victims  of  the  Slave  Trade ;   and 

Whereas  it  is  the  general  duty  of  the  State  to  assume  the  guardian- 
ship of  abandoned  children,  or  of  those  whose  parents  do  not  fulfil 
their  duties ; 

Now,  therefore,  on  the  proposal  of  our  Administrator-General  of  the 
Foreign  Department,  we  have  decreed  and  do  hereby  decree : — 

Article  i.  The  State  shall  assume  the  guardianship  of  children 
liberated  in  consequence  of  the  arrest  and  dispersal  of  a  convoy  of 
slaves;  of  fugitive  slaves  who  demand  such  protection,  of  children 
forsaken,  abandoned,  or  orphans,  and  of  those  whose  parents  do  not 
fulfil  their  duty  with  regard  to  maintaining  and  educating  them. 


5^2  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

They  shall  be  provided  with  the  means  of  livelihood  and  a  practical 
education,  and  established  in  life. 

Art.  2.  With  this  object  agricultural  and  professional  settlements 
shall  be  established,  which  shall  admit  not  only  such  children  as  come 
under  the  definitions  of  Article  i,  but,  as  far  as  may  be,  those  children 
who  shall  ask  to  be  admitted. 

Art.  3.  From  the  day  of  their  admission  the  children  shall  be  placed 
exclusively  under  the  guardianship  of  the  State,  to  which  they  shall 
remain  subject,  and  shall  be  liable  to  work,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Governor-General,  up  to  the  expiration  of  their  twenty-fifth  year  in 
return  for  maintenance,  food,  lodging,  and  free  medical  attendance. 

Art.  4.  Rules  of  administration  prescribed  by  our  Governor- 
General  shall  decide  the  mode  and  conditions  of  admission  to  the 
settlements,  the  composition  of  the  directing  staflE,  the  programme  of 
manual  and  intellectijal  work,  the  details  of  supervision,  disciplinary 
penalties  and  their  -application,  and  the  public  services  to  which  the 
children  shall  be  attached. 

Art<<'-^.  The  administration  of  the  guardianship  of  the  children 
.  .diuitted  tp  the  settlements  shall,  as  far  as  their  personal  rights  and 
property  are  concerned,  be  regulated  by  the  Civil  Code. 

Art.  6.  Our  Administrators- General  of  the  Foreign  and  Home  De- 
partments are  charged,  each  in  so  far  as  it  concerns  him,  with  the 
execution  of  this  Decree. 

Done  at  Brussels  this  12th  day  of  July,  1890. 

(Signed)  Leopold. 

By  the  King-Sovereign: 
The  Administrator-General  of  the  Foreign 
Department, 

(Signed)         Edm.  van  Eetvelde. 

INSTITUTION  OF  A  COMMISSION  FOR  THE  PRO- 
TECTION OF  NATIVES 

Leopold  IL,  King  of  the  Belgians,  Sovereign  of  the  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo,  to  all  present  and  to  come,  greeting: 

On  the  motion  of  our  Secretary  of  State, 

We  have  decreed  and  do  hereby  decree: 

A  permanent  Commission  is  instituted  to  watch  over  the  protection 
of  the  natives  throughout  the  territories  of  the  State. 

The  members   of  this   Commission   are  nominated  by   the    King- 
Sovereign  for  a  period  of  two  years  from  among  the  representatives  of 
philanthropic  and  religious  Associations. 
Are  named  in  the  first  instance: 

Mgr.  van  Ronsle,  Bishop  of  Thymbrium,  Vicar  Apostolic  of  the 
Congo  Independent  State,  President; 


Appendix  563 


Father  van  Hencxthoven,  J.,  Superior  of  the  Jesuit  Mission  at 
Leopold  ville-, 

Father  de  Cleene,  of  the  Congregation  of  Scheut; 

WilUam  Holman  Bentley,  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  Cor- 
poration ; 

Dr.  A.  Sims,  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union; 

George  Grenfell,  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  Corporation, 
Secreta^3^ 

The  members  of  the  Commission  are  to  inform  the  Judicial  au- 
thorities of  any  acts  of  violence  of  which  the  natives  may  be  the 
victims. 

Each  of  the  members,  individually,  may  exercise  this  right  of  pro- 
tection, and  communicate  directly  with  the  Governor-General. 

The  Commission  shall  further  indicate  to  the  Government  the 
measures  to  be  taken  to  prevent  slave-trading,  to  render  mor^  effective 
the  prohibition  or  restriction  of  the  trade  in  spirituous  liquors,  and 
gradually  to  bring  about  the  abolition  of  barbarous  customs,  such  as 
cannibalism,  human  sacrifices,  ordeal  by  poison,  etc. 

Our  Secretary  of  State  is  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  present 
Decree. 

Done  at  Brussels,  the  i8th  September,  1896.  \ 

(Signed)  Leopold,  v 

By  the  King- Sovereign : 

The  Secretary  of  State, 

(Signed)  Edm.  van  Eetvelde. 

LETTER  OF  INSTRUCTION  FROM  THE  SECRETARY 

OF    STATE    TO    THE    GOVERNOR-GENERAL    AT 

BOMA  IN  RE  PROTECTION  OF  NATIVES 

Brussels,  October  i,  1896. 
Sir, 

I  have  the  honour  to  transmit  to  you  herewith  a  certified  copy  of  a 
Decree,  dated  the  i8th  September,  appointing  a  Commission  for  the 
protection  of  natives. 

It  has  seemed  advisable  that  selected  and  impartial  men,  without 
oflTicial  or  administrative  connection,  should  be  placed  in  a  position  to 
form  a  perfectly  independent  opinion  in  regard  to  any  acts  of  violence 
of  which  the  natives  may  have  to  complain.  Such  is  the  object  of  the 
new  Commission  which  has  been  appointed  to  watch  over  the  protec- 
tion of  natives  throughout  the  country. 

Its  members  are  nominated  by  the  King-Sovereign,  for  a  period  of 
two  years,  from  among  the  representatives  of  philanthropic  and  re- 
ligious Associations. 

By  this  expression  the  Decree  pointed  specially  to  the  missionaries, 


5^4  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

who  were,  indeed,  marked  out  for  nomination  in  virtue  of  their  office. 

The  first  members  nominated  are:  Mgr.  van  Ronsle,  Fathers  van 
Hencxthoven  and  De  Cleene,  the  Protestant  missionaries  William 
Holman  Bentley,  Dr.  A.  Sims,  and  G.  Grenfell.  The  last  mentioned  is 
appointed  Secretary;   Mgr.  van  Ronsle  is  nominated  President. 

I  have  to  request  you  to  inform  them  individually  of  their  selection 
by  the  King-Sovereign;  the  Government  are  confident  that  they  will 
not  be  appealing  in  vain  to  the  devotion  of  these  gentlemen  in  re- 
questing the  assistance  of  their  services  in  a  work  of  humanity  and 
protection.  One  of  the  authenticated  copies  of  the  Decree  hereto 
annexed  is  intended  for  each,  and  will  serve  as  a  letter  of  appointment. 

The  Decree  specifies  the  duty  intrusted  to  them  as  being  that  of 
notifying  to  the  judicial  authorities  acts  of  violence  of  which  the 
natives  m9,y  be  the  victims.  This  right  of  initiative  belongs  to  each 
member  individually,  that  is  to  say,  that  he  can  act  separately  without 
any  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  other  members  of  the  Commission. 
Each  iTiember  may  of  his  own  accord  address  direct  communications 
to  the  Governor-General  with  regard  to  any  matters  which  come 
within  the  scope  of  his  mission. 

It  is  the  express  desire  of  the  Government  that  the  authorities 
should  act  upon  the  information  thus  given  by  the  members  of  the 
Commission,  and  open  an  inquiry  and  institute  proceedings  either  ad- 
ministrative or,  in  cases  of  infractions  of  the  law,  judicial,  in  accordance 
with  the  general  instructions  given  to  the  Department  of  Criminal 
Justice  {le  Parquet). 

It  will  hardly  be  necessary  to  call  the  attention  of  the  members  of 
the  Commission  to  the  fact  that,  by  reason  of  the  great  attention 
which  will  be  paid  to  any  complaint  which  they  may  make,  it  will 
behove  them  to  act  with  circumspection,  and  to  give  the  authority 
of  their  support  only  to  those  facts  of  which  they  may  have  personal 
knowledge,  and  which  are  based  on  trustworthy  evidence. 

The  Decree  lastly  provides  that  the  Commission  may,  through  the 
medium  of  its  Secretary,  indicate  to  the  Government  the  measures  to 
be  taken  to  prevent  slave-trading,  to  render  more  effective  the  pro- 
hibition or  restriction  of  the  trade  in  spirituous  liquors,  and  gradually 
to  bring  about  the  disappearance  of  inhuman  practices.  The  simplest 
mode  of  procedure  will  be  for  the  Secretary  of  the  Commission — and 
I  am  sure  that  Mr.  G.  Grenfell  will  be  willing  to  accept  the  duty— to 
forward  to  the  Governor-General  a  half-yearly  report  on  these  ques- 
tions, containing  the  observations  and  proposals  of  the  members  of 
the  Commission  on  the  subject.  This  half-yearly  report  would  also 
deal  with  the  working  of  the  Commission,  the  acts  of  violence  de- 
finitely established  by  the  members,  the  complaints  made,  and  the 
results  achieved. 


Appendix  565 

I  have  to  request  you  to  keep  me  informed  of  tlie  manner  in  which 
the  new  Decree  is  carried  out,  and  to  acquaint  me  with  the  definite 
constitution  of  the  Commission. 

The  terms  of  the  Decree  seem  calculated  to  afford  the  natives  a 
real  guarantee.  In  order  to  strengthen  this  still  more,  the  Government 
have  decided  that  all  offences  against  the  persons  of  natives,  and  all 
attempts  against  their  liberties  committed  by  Europeans,  shall  be  re- 
mitted exclusively  to  the  Court  of  First  Instance  at  Boma,  that  is  to 
say,  before  a  Court  sitting  under  the  fullest  conditions  of  publicity  and 
control.  I  therefore  request  that  you  will  instruct  the  Public  Prose- 
cutors (Parquet)  to  bring  offences  of  the  kind  before  that  Court, 
instead  of  sending  them  to  the  territorial  Courts,  reserving  of  course 
the  special  jurisdiction  which  the  law  gives  to  military  Courts  (Con- 
seils  de  Guerre)  in  the  case  of  soldiers. 
Believe,  etc., 

The  Secretary  of  State, 

(Signed)  Edm.  van  Eetvelde. 

BoLOBO,  December  26,  1896. 
Reverend  Sir, 

I  have  the  honour  to  transmit  to  you  herewith  a  certified  copy  of 
the  Decree  of  the  i8th  December  last  appointing  a  Commission  for  the 
protection  of  natives,  and  nominating  you  to  fulfil  the  duties  of 
Secretary  to  the  said  Commission.  This  authenticated  copy  will 
serve  you  as  your  letter  of  appointment  to  the  important  functions 
for  the  performance  of  which  the  King-Sov'ereign  has  selected  you. 
The  Government  are  confident  that  their  appeal  for  your  assistance 
in  a  work  of  humanity  and  protection  will  not  be  in  vain. 

Owing  to  the  powers  devolving  upon  you  as  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mission, you  will  be  in  a  position  to  form  a  perfectly  independent 
opinion  in  regard  to  any  acts  of  violence  of  which  the  natives  may 
have  to  complain,  and  it  \vill  be  your  duty  to  notify  to  the  jtidicial 
authorities  any  improper  proceedings  of  which  the  natives  in  question 
may  be  the  victims.  This  right  of  initiative  belongs  to  you  mdi\'idu- 
ally,  that  is  to  say,  you  may  act  separately,  without  any  co-operation 
on  the  part  of  the  other  members  of  the  Commission.  On  your  in- 
formation the  authorities  will  open  an  inquiry,  and  will  institute  pro- 
ceedings, either  administrative  or,  in  cases  of  infractions  of  the  law, 
judicial. 

In  view  of  the  action  which  will  be  taken  on  any  complaint  emanat- 
ing from  you  or  from  the  Commission,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  re- 
mind you  that  circumspection  is  called  for,  and  that  you  should  give 
the  authority  of  your  support  only  to  those  facts  of  which  you  may 
have  a  personal  knowledge,  and  which  are  based  on  trustworthy 
evidence. 


566  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  Commissioif  will  also  have  the  duty  of  drawing  the  attention 
of  the  Government  to  the  measures  to  be  taken  to  prevent  slave- 
trading,  to  render  more  effective  the  prohibition  or  restriction  of  the 
trade  in  spirituous  liquors,  and  gradually  to  bring  about  the  disappear- 
ance of  inhuman  practices.  The  simplest  mode  of  procedure  in  this 
matter  would  be,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Government,  that  you,  in  your 
capacity  as  Secretary^and  the  Government  is  convinced  that  you 
will  be  willing  to  accept  this  duty — -should  send  in  a  half-yearly  report 
on  these  questions,  containing  the  observations  and  proposals  of  the 
members  of  the  Commission  on  the  subject.  This  half-yearly  report 
might  also  deal  with  the  working  of  the  Commission,  the  acts  of  vio- 
lence definitely  established  by  its  members,  the  complaints  made,  and 
the  results  achieved. 

But  in  this  matter,  as  in  everything  which  relates  to  the  working  of 
the  Commission,  the  Government  give  it  full  discretion. 

In  forwarding  to  each  of  the  members  a  copy  of  the  new  Decree,  and 
in  announcing  his  nomination  to  each  individually,  I  am  informing 
them  of  your  appointment  as  Secretary.  You  will  be  good  enough 
to  place  yourself  in  communication  with  them  in  order,  if  possible,  in 
spite  of  distance,  to  arrange,  at  Leopoldville,  for  instance,  a  meeting 
of  all  the  members  of  the  Commission,  or  of  a  certain  number  of  them, 
or  definitely  to  constitute  the  Commission  by  correspondence,  and  to 
settle  such  measures   as  should  be   taken  for  the  execution  of  the 

Decree. 

Believe,  etc., 

The  Governor-General, 

(Signed)  Wahis. 

To 

The  Reverend  George  Grenfell, 

Baptist  Missionary  Society,  Bolobo. 

CIRCULAR  TO  ALL  THE  DISTRICT  COMMISSIONERS, 
HEADS  OF  ZONES  AND  OF  POSTS,  WITH  REGARD 
TO  BARBAROUS  CUSTOMS  PREVAILING  AMONG 
THE  NATIVE  TRIBES. 

Brussels,  February  27,  1897. 
Gentlemen, 

As  you  are  aware,  the  Government  have  had  constantly  under  their 
consideration  the  barbarous  practices,  such  as  cannibalism,  ordeal  by 
poison,  and  human  sacrifices,  which  prevail  among  the  native  tribes, 
and  the  best  means  of  bringing  about  their  disappearance. 

In  this  matter,  as  in  all  questions  in  which  allowance  must  to  some 
extent  be  made  for  long-established  custom  and  social  conditions 
which  it  would  be  impolitic  to  attack  too  directly,  the  Government 


Appendix  567 

have  thought  it  advisable  to  act  at  first  with  prudence  and  circum- 
spection, without,  however,  remaining  inactive. 

For  this  reason  the  first  instruction  issued  to  officers  did  not,  in  all 
cases,  prescribe  repression  by  force ;  they  enjoined  the  exercise  of  their 
influence  and  authority  with  a  view  to  deterring  the  natives  by  per- 
suasion from  indulging  in  these  inhimaan  practices.  A  fiirther  ad- 
vance has  been  made:  the  moment  the  authority  of  the  State  was 
sufficiently  established  in  the  neighbourhood  of  its  posts  and  stations, 
the  toleration  of  such  customs  was  formally  prohibited  within  a  certain 
distance  round  the  State  stations  or  European  establishments,  and 
the  Penal  Law  made  their  repression  in  these  places  possible  by  its 
provisions  respecting  acts  of  violence  against  the  person.  Outside 
this  limit  it  lay  with  the  officers  of  the  Department  of  Criminal  Jus- 
tice {Ministere  Public)  to  prosecute  or  not,  according  as  the  situa- 
tion of  the  district  and  the  forces  at  the  disposal  of  the  authorities 
permitted. 

These  measures  have  not  been  without  result.  Not  only  have  cases 
of  cannibaUsm  become  less  frequent  in  the  centres  occupied  by  the 
officers  of  the  State,  but  the  native  himself  has  learnt,  and  now  knows, 
the  horror  felt  by  Europeans  for  cannibalism,  and  is  no  longer  ignorant 
of  the  fact  that  by  giving  way  to  it  he  renders  himself  liable  to  punish- 
ment. As  a  general  rule,  indeed,  it  is  only  in  secret,  and  ovit  of  sight 
of  Europeans,  that  he  still  indulges  in  the  odious  custom,  for  he  has 
become  convinced  that,  save  in  exceptional  cases  in  which  the  white 
man  is  powerless  to  do  otherwise,  he  will  not  let  him  go  tinptmished. 

The  Government  considers  that  an  even  more  decisive  step  should 
be  taken  in  the  direction  of  repression.  As  the  State's  occupation  of 
these  districts  becomes  more  and  more  complete,  as  its  posts  are  mul- 
tiplied all  along  the  Upper  Congo,  and  as  regular  Courts  are  gaining 
a  footing  in  the  interior,  the  moment  seems  to  have  come  to  endeavour 
to  reach  the  evil  once  for  all,  and  to  seek  to  extirpate  it  everywhere 
where  our  authority  is  sufficiently  established  to  enable  us  to  enforce 
absolute  respect  for  the  Penal  Law. 

It  was  with  this  view  that  the  Decree  of  the  i8th  December,  1896, 
was  drawn  up,  by  which  more  particularly  cases  of  cannibalism  and 
ordeal  by  poison  were  made  special  offences.  It  is  the  Government's 
intention  that  these  provisions  shall  be  strictly  enforced,  and  it  is  the 
aim  of  the  present  Circular  to  direct  all  our  officers  to  bring  to  justice 
any  oflfences  of  this  kind  which  may  come  to  their  knowledge.  It  will 
be  the  duty  of  the  officers  of  the  Department  of  Criminal  Justice 
{Ministtre  Pitblic)  to  institute  proceedmgs  against  the  delinquents, 
and  in  these  special  cases  they  will  not  be  at  liberty  to  apply  Article 
84  of  the  Decree  of  the  27th  April,  1889,  and  to  hand  them  over  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  local  Chief  to  be  dealt  with  by  native  custom.  It 
is,  mdeed,  evident  that  such  a  course  is  out  of  the  question  in  dealing 


568         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

with  a  class  of  offences  which  are  contrary  to  the  principles  of  our 
civilisation,  and  which  are  the  outcome  of  customs  which  we  are 
seeking  to  abolish. 

The  Government  count  on  general  assistance,  with  a  view  to  insuring 
the  prompt  and  certain  repression  of  these  offences,  and  they  believe 
that  a  few  severe  examples  will  have  a  powerful  effect  in  inducing  the 
native  to  put  an  end  to  these  reprehensible  practices.  The  District 
Commissioners  and  Heads  of  Stations  are  in  this  connection  expected 
to  police  the  territories  under  their  administration,  and  to  take  the 
necessary  measures  to  obtain  exact  information. 

The  Director  of  Justice  will  forward  to  the  Government  every 
quarter  a  Report  on  the  practice  of  cannibalism,  on  the  cases  prose- 
cuted, and,  if  necessary,  on  the  new  measures  which  should  be  taken 
in  order  to  check  and  extirpate  this  custom. 

MISSIONARY  GRENFELL  ON  ADMINISTRATION    OF 

JUSTICE 

Baptist  Missionary  Society,  Bolobo,  July  13,  1897. 
Sir, 

I  have  the  honour  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  dated 
the  17th  May,  together  with  the  enclosure,  relative  to  cannibalism, 
proof  by  poison,  and  human  sacrifices,  dated  Brussels,  the  27th 
February,  1897. 

I  need  hardly  say,  M.  le  Gouverneur,  that  I  sympathise  most  sin- 
cerely with  the  Government  in  its  desire  to  eradicate  the  evils  referred 
to ;  and  you  may  rely  upon  my  best  efforts  in  the  long  and  arduous 
struggle  involved  in  combating  them. 

I  am  glad  to  recognise  the  gradual  extension  of  the  zone  where 
justice  is  administered  by  regularly  constituted  Judges,  for  there  is 
no  doubt  that  where  the  administration  of  the  State  has  been  suf- 
ficiently advanced  to  allow  of  this,  the  evils  referred  to  are  very 
markedly  on  the  decrease.  It  is  not  possible,  of  course,  to  complete 
at  a  stroke  the  organisation  of  distant  territory,  or  at  once  to  appoint 
Judges  in  new  districts,  but  the  fact  that  the  State  is  persistently 
pushing  the  regular  administration  of  justice  towards  the  interior  en- 
courages one  in  confidently  looking  forward  to  the  reducing  of  the 
cases  of  cannibalism,  proof  by  poison,  and  human  sacrifices  in  those 
parts  of  the  Colony  that  as  yet  have  not  benefited  by  the  ameliorat- 
ing influences  that  have  done  so  much  for  its  western  section. 

I  have,  etc., 
(Signed)  George  Grenfell. 

M.  le  Gouvemeur-G6n6ral, 
Boma. 


Appendix  569 

CO-ORDINATED  TEXT  OF  VARIOUS  INSTRUCTIONS 

RESPECTING  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  CONGO 

STATE  OFFICIALS  AND  NATIVES 

It  will  be  the  especial  care  of  Heads  of  Expeditions  and  of  District 
Commissioners  to  see  that  their  subordinates,  of  whatever  degree, 
act,  in  their  dealings  with  the  natives,  with  the  tact  which  is  necessary 
to  avoid  such  conflict  as  might  arise  from  misunderstandings  or  from 
proceedings  which  run  too  sharply  counter  to  native  habits  and 
customs. 

They  will  recommend  their  officers  to  proceed  slowly  in  reforming 
the  native,  and  will  draw  their  serious  attention  to  the  danger  of 
trying  to  obtain  too  rapid  results.  Before  using  force,  they  will  try 
to  enter  into  negotiations  with  the  natives,  and  they  must  remember 
that  it  is  better  to  obtain  redress  for  harm  done  to  the  State  by  pacific 
means  rather  than  by  force  of  arms. 

The  Government  are  aware  that  energetic  measures  of  repression 
are  sometimes  necessary,  but  they  consider  that  such  measures  should 
be  used  only  in  exceptional  cases,  and  after  every  means  of  concilia- 
tion has  been  exhausted. 

In  many  cases  negotiations  skilfully  conducted  and  prolonged  will 
avoid  direct  hostilities. 

It  is,  for  instance,  obviously  advisable,  with  a  view  to  avoid  blood- 
shed, to  make  use  of  such  Chiefs  as  are  at  once  devoted  to  the  State 
and  in  friendly  relations  with  the  tribes  in  conflict  with  the  authorities. 

In  this  way  the  natives,  and  especially  those  who  are  not  in  con- 
tinuous relations  with  Europeans,  will  not  misunderstand  the  inten- 
tions and  sentiments  of  the  State  towards  them,  a  misunderstanding 
which  would  certainly  arise  from  a  too  hasty  recourse  to  extreme 
measures. 

In  any  case,  whenever  resort  to  force  has  become  inevitable,  the 
Government  must  receive  exact  and  complete  information  in  regard 
to  the  motives  which  have  led  to  its  employment,  and  operations  must, 
as  far  as  possible,  be  so  carried  out  that  only  the  guilty  suffer. 

No  officer  is  to  engage  in  hostilities  with  the  natives,  unless  in  self- 
defence,  or  duly  authorised  by  the  Commissioner  of  his  district  or 
the  Head  of  his  expedition. 

Moreover,  the  regular  and  auxiliary  troops  engaged  in  warlike 
operations  must  always  be  commanded  by  a  European.  No  excep- 
tion to  this  rule  will  be  admitted,  and  officers  who  transgress  it  will 
render  themselves  liable  to  dismissal  as  well  as  to  any  judicial  pro- 
ceedings it  may  be  thought  advisable  to  institute  against  them. 

In  case  of  hostilities,  the  property  of  natives  is  not  to  be  destroyed, 
and  under  no  pretext  may  villages  be  burnt  as  a  means  of  repression. 
The  European  commissioned  and  non-commissioned  officers  will  take 


570         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

especial  care  that  the  operations  shall  be  conducted  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  avoid  all  cruelty.  Wounded  rebels  are  to  receive  careful  at- 
tention, and  the  bodies  of  the  dead  must  be  respected.  The  barbar- 
ous mutilation  of  dead  bodies,  as  often  practised  by  the  natives  among 
themselves,  is  to  be  absolutely  forbidden  by  the  Europeans. 

All  Europeans  at  the  head  of  troops  engaged  in  warfare  will  be  held 
personally  responsible  for  all  such  cruelties  as  they  may  tolerate;  all 
guilty  persons  will  be  brought  before  a  military  Court  and  dealt  with 
according  to  law. 

Prisoners  of  war  and  hostages  are  to  be  treated  humanely,  and  their 
ill-usage  is  strictly  forbidden. 

Any  women  and  children  found  among  them  shall  be  placed  under 
the  immediate  protection  of  the  officer  in  command  of  the  operations. 

Officers  of  the  State  must  remember  that  the  disciplinary  penalties 
provided  by  the  Military  Regulations  are  only  applicable  to  such  as 
are  military  recruits,  and  then  only  for  offences  against  discipline  and 
in  accordance  with  the  special  provisions  of  the  said  Regulations. 

The  said  penalties  can,  under  no  pretence,  be  put  into  force  against 
non-military  servants  of  the  State  or  against  the  natives,  whether 
rebels  or  not. 

Those  among  them  who  are  accused  of  offences  or  crimes  must  be 
remitted  to  the  competent  Tribunals  and  tried  according  to  law. 

Should  officers  of  the  State  infringe  the  Rules  laid  down  respecting 
the  relations  which  they  are  to  have  with  the  natives,  or  tolerate 
mutilations  and  cruelties  on  the  part  of  their  soldiers,  they  will,  in 
case  of  a  specified  offence,  be  remitted  to  a  Court  of  Justice.  They 
would,  in  any  case,  be  subjected  to  disciplinary  punishment.  More- 
over, the  guilty  officers,  if  already  decorated  with  the  Service  Star, 
will  lose  their  right  to  wear  it. 

It  is  equally  indispensable  that  officers  should  act  justly,  and  in 
accordance  with  the  instructions  in  force,  in  their  dealings  with  the 
servants  of  the  State.  They  are  forbidden  to  act  illegally,  i.  e.,  to 
inflict  punishments  other  than  those  provided  for  breaches  of  disci- 
pline or  to  disregard  legal  forms  for  the  purpose  of  repressing  offences 
of  which  the  servants  of  the  State,  and  notably  soldiers,  may  be 
guilty.  When  sentences  have  been  passed,  they  must  be  undergone 
in  accordance  with  the  specified  legal  conditions. 

Any  officer  departing  from  these  Rules  would  be  guilty  of  abuse  of 
authority,  and  render  himself  liable  to  dismissal. 

District  Commissioners  and  Heads  of  expeditions  must  exercise  the 
most  vigilant  control  over  such  detachments  of  black  soldiers  as  they 
may  be  obliged  to  place  among  the  natives.  These  detachments  must 
on  no  account  be  provided  with  improved  fire-arms.  Their  task  is 
exclusively  one  of  protection  and  supervision. 

They  are  never  to  intervene  in  quarrels  between  natives.     They 


Appendix  571 


inust  confine  themselves  to  informing  the  nearest  station  commanded 
by  an  European. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  European  officers  to  make  frequent  inspections 
of  such  detachments,  and  to  see  that  they  do  not  in  any  way  transgress 
the  limits  imposed  upon  them  by  their  orders.  They  are  to  summon 
the  neighbouring  native  Chiefs  on  the  occasion  of  these  inspections, 
and  will  receive  their  complaints,  should  they  have  any  to  make. 

The  Negro  officers  of  the  stations  are  strictly  forbidden  themselves 
to  take  any  measures  of  repression  against  the  natives;  the  duty  of 
taking  measures,  when  occasion  arises,  devolves  upon  the  European 
officers  alone. 

The  arrangements  to  be  made  with  the  villages  must  be  concluded  by 
a  European. 

Any  Chief  of  a  Negro  station  levying  exactions  on  the  natives,  or 
ill-treating  them,  or  in  any  way  abusing  his  authority  over  them,  mustbe 
prosecuted  according  to  law,  and  immediately  suspended  from  his  duties. 

The  Heads  of  expeditions  and  Commissioners  of  Districts  are  per- 
sonally responsible  for  the  conduct  of  any  Negro  posts  under  their 
orders.  They  would  be  guilty  of  a  very  serious  offence  if  they  gave 
these  detachments  any  duties  other  than  those  defined  above,  and  if 
they  did  not  constantly  supervise  them  and  immediately  repress  all 
abuses  coming  under  their  notice. 

REPORT  OF  THE  FIRST  MEETING  OF  THE  COM- 
MISSION FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF  NATIVES, 
HELD  AT  LEOPOLDVILLE  ON  MAY  17,  1897. 
PRESENT,  THE  REVEREND  FATHER  VAN 
HENCXTHOVEN,  DR.  SIMS,  AND  THE  SECRE- 
TARY, MR.  GRENFELL 

In  the  absence  of  Mgr.  van  Ronsl6,  the  Rev.  Father  van  Hencx- 
thoven  was  elected  President  for  the  sitting. 

Seeing  that  the  members  of  the  Commission  live  far  apart,  and  in 
view  of  the  difficulty  of  all  the  members  meeting,  it  was  decided  that 
three  members  should  form  a  quorum. 

The  members  of  the  Commission  found  that  from  the  date  of  the 
constitution  of  the  Commission,  so  far  as  their  personal  experience 
went,  the  laws  of  the  State  had  been  duly  administered  with  a  view 
to  the  protection  of  life  and  property,  as  well  as  to  the  well-being  of 
the  community.  They  found,  fvirther,  that  every  case  of  injustice 
brought  to  the  notice  of  the  authorities  had  been  immediately  followed 
by  measures  of  the  most  energetic  description. 

In  the  absence  of  Mr.  Bentley,  his  Report  was  communicated  to 
the  Secretary.     He  writes  that  the  Judge  of  tlie  district  where  he  re- 


572  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

sides,  had,  in  each  case  notified  to  him,  at  once  taken  measures  to  punish 
the  guilty,  some  cases  having  been  settled  satisfactorily,  and  the  others 
being  before  the  Court.  The  Judge  informed  Mr.  Bentley  that  he 
would  always  be  ready,  on  receiving  a  week's  notice,  to  go  to  Lutete, 
and  try  any  case. 

The  members  of  the  Commission,  recalling  the  days  of  native  rule, 
take  this  opportunity  of  recording  their  sincere  appreciation  of,  and 
their  gratitude  for,  the  law  and  order  introduced  by  the  Independ- 
ent State  into  the  districts  where  they  reside. 

The  members  of  the  Commission  also  record  with  the  deepest 
satisfaction  their  opinion  that,  as  far  as  they  know,  the  laws  for- 
bidding the  introduction  of  alcoholic  liquor  for  natives  to  the  east  of 
the  River  N'Kissi  have  been  satisfactorily  enforced.  They  consider 
the  restriction  of  the  zone  up  to  the  west  of  the  River  Kwilu  as  a 
really  judicious  and  beneficent  measure,  and  they  trust  that  the 
Government  will  be  as  successful  within  the  new  limit  as  heretofore 
within  the  old. 

The  members  of  the  Commission  deeply  regret  that  ordeal  by  poison 
is  still  practised  over  so  great  an  extent  of  the  country,  and  that  its 
suppression  is  so  difficult  In  those  districts  which  are  more  com- 
pletely administered,  ordeal  by  poison  is  practised  in  secret,  owing 
to  the  penalties  of  the  law,  and  the  members  hope  that  the  same 
measures  of  repression  will  be  taken  in  the  interior  districts  as  soon 
as  the  organisation  of  the  Government  allows  of  it. 

The  Commission  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Government  to 
the  fact  that  all  its  members  are  chosen  from  the  Stanley  Pool  dis- 
trict and  below,  and  that  no  one  has  been  chosen  from  the  immense 
districts  which  are  supposed  to  furnish  the  reason  for  the  existence 
of  the  Commission  for  the  protection  of  the  natives. 

The  members  of  the  Commission,  also,  seeing  that  it  is  only  possible 
for  them  to  act  within  the  very  narrow  scope  of  their  personal  experi- 
ence, ventttre  to  hope  that  the  Inspector  specially  nominated  by  His 
Majesty  the  King-Sovereign,  will  soon  arrive,  seeing  that  his  powers 
of  observation  would  be  infinitely  greater  than  our  own. 

(Signed)         George  Grenfell,  Secretary. 

Leopoldville,  May  17,  1897. 

PROTECTION  OF  NATIVES— COMMISSION 

Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  Sovereign  of  the  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo,  to  all  present  and  to  come,  greeting: 

On  reconsideration  of  our  Decree  of  the  i8th  September,  1896, 
appointing  a  Commission  for  the  protection  of  natives : 

On  the  suggestion  of  our  Secretary  of  State, 

We  have  decreed  and  do  hereby  decree : 


Appendix  573 

Article  i.  The  following  are  appointed  members  of  this  Commis- 
sion, for  the  period  of  two  years  mentioned  by  the  said  Decree: 

Mgr.  van  Ronsle,  Bishop  of  Thymbrium,  Vicar  Apostolic  of  the 
Vicariat  of  Belgian  Congo,  President. 

The  Reverend  Father  van  Hencxthoven,  J.,  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus. 

The  Reverend  Father  Cambier,  of  the  Congregation  of  Scheut. 

Mr.  William  Holman  Bentley,  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society 
Corporation. 

Dr.  A.  Sims,  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union. 

Mr.  George  Grenfell,  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  Corporation, 
Secretary. 

Art.  2.  The  members  of  the  Commission  shall  carry  out  their 
mandate  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  above-mentioned  Decree 
of  the  1 8th  September,  1896. 

Art.  3.     Our  Secretary  of  State  is  intrusted  with  the  execution  of 

the  present  Decree. 

Done  at  Brussels,  March  23,  1901. 

(Signed)  Leopold. 

By  the  King-Sovereign: 
In  the  name  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 

The  Secretaries-General, 
(Signed)  Chevalier  de  Cuvelier, 

H.  Droogmans, 

LlEBRECHTS. 

DISPATCH  TO  CERTAIN  OF  HIS  MAJESTY'S  REPRE- 
SENTATIVES ABROAD  IN  REGARD  TO  ALLEGED 
CASES  OF  ILL-TREATMENT  OF  NATIVES  AND  TO 
THE  EXISTENCE  OF  TRADE  MONOPOLIES  IN 
THE  INDEPENDENT  STATE  OF  THE  CONGO 

The  Marquess  of  Lansdownc  to  His  Majesty's  Representatives  at  Parts, 
Berlin,  Rome,  St.  Petersburg,  Vienna,  Madrid,  Constantinople, 
Brussels,  Lisbon,  the  Hague,  Copenhagen,  and  Stockholm. 

Foreign  Office,  August  8,  1903. 
Sir. 

The  attention  of  His  Majesty's  Government  has  during  recent  years 
been  repeatedly  called  to  alleged  cases  of  ill-treatment  of  natives  and 
to  the  existence  of  trade  monopolies  in  the  Independent  State  of  the 
Congo.  Representations  to  this  effect  are  to  be  found  in  memorials 
from  philanthropic  societies,  in  communications  from  commercial 
bodies,  in  the  public  press,  and  in  dispatches  from  His  Majesty's 
Consuls. 


574  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

The  same  matters  formed  the  subject  of  a  debate  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  20th  ultimo,  when  the  House  passed  the  Resolution, 
a  copy  of  which  is  inclosed. 

In  the  course  of  the  debate,  the  official  record  of  which  is  also  in- 
closed, it  was  alleged  that  the  object  of  the  Administration  was  not 
so  much  the  care  and  government  of  the  natives  as  the  collection  of 
revenue ;  that  this  object  was  pvu-sued  by  means  of  a  system  of  forced 
labour,  differing  only  in  name  from  slavery;  that  the  demands  upon 
each  village  were  exacted  with  a  strictness  which  constantly  degen- 
erated into  great  cruelty;  and  that  the  men  composing  the  armed 
force  of  the  State  were  in  many  cases  recruited  from  the  most  warlike 
and  savage  tribes,  who  not  infrequently  terrorised  over  their  own 
officers  and  maltreated  the  natives  without  regard  to  discipline  or 
fear  of  punishment. 

As  regards  the  ill-treatment  of  natives,  a  distinction  may  be  drawn 
between  isolated  acts  of  cruelty  committed  by  individuals,  whether  in 
the  service  of  the  State  or  not,  and  a  system  of  administration  involv- 
ing and  accompanied  by  systematic  cruelty  or  oppression. 

The  fact  that  many  individual  instances  of  cruelty  have  taken  place 
in  the  Congo  State  is  proved  beyond  possibility  of  contradiction  by 
the  occurrence  of  cases  in  which  white  officials  have  been  convicted  of 
outrages  on  natives.  These  white  officials  must,  however,  in  view  of 
the  vast  extent  of  the  territory  under  their  administration,  in  most 
cases  be  of  necessity  isolated  the  one  from  the  other,  with  the  result 
that  detection  becomes  additionally  difficult.  It  is  therefore  not 
unfair  to  asstmie  that  the  number  of  convictions  falls  considerably 
short  of  the  number  of  actual  offences  committed. 

It  is,  however,  with  regard  to  the  system  of  administration  that  the 
most  serious  allegations  are  brought  against  the  Independent  State. 

It  is  reported  that  no  efforts  are  made  to  fit  the  native  by  training 
for  industrial  pursiiits;  that  the  method  of  obtaining  men  for  labour 
or  for  military  service  is  often  but  little  different  from  that  formerly 
employed  to  obtain  slaves;  and  that  force  is  now  as  much  required 
to  take  the  native  to  the  place  of  service  as  it  used  to  be  to  convey 
the  captured  slave.  It  is  also  reported  that  constant  compulsion  has 
to  be  exercised  in  order  to  exact  the  collection  of  the  amount  of  forest 
produce  allotted  to  each  village  as  the  equivalent  of  the  number  of 
days'  labour  due  from  the  inhabitants,  and  that  this  compulsion  is 
often  exercised  by  irresponsible  native  soldiers  uncontrolled  by  any 
European  officer. 

His  Majesty's  Government  do  not  know^  precisely  to  what  extent 
these  accusations  may  be  true ;  but  they  have  been  so  repeatedly  made, 
and  have  received  such  wide  credence,  that  it  is  no  longer  possible  to 
ignore  them,  and  the  question  has  now  arisen  whether  the  Congo 
State  can  be  considered  to  have  fulfilled  the  special  pledges,  given 


Appendix  575 


under  the  Berlin  Act,  to  watch  over  the  preservation  of  the  native 
tribes,  and  to  care  for  their  moral  and  material  advancement. 

The  graver  charges  against  the  State  relate  almost  exclusively  to 
the  upper  valleys  of  the  Congo  and  of  its  affluents.  The  lands  forming 
these  vast  territories  are  held  either  by  the  State  itself  or  by  Com- 
panies closely  connected  with  the  State,  under  a  system  which,  what- 
ever its  object,  has  effectually  kept  out  the  independent  trader,  as 
opposed  to  the  owner  or  to  the  occupier  of  the  soil,  and  has  conse- 
quently made  it  difficult  to  obtain  independent  testimony. 

His  Majesty's  Government  have  further  laboured  tinder  the  disad- 
vantage that  British  interests  have  not  justified  the  maintenance  of  a 
large  Consular  staff  in  the  Congo  territories.  It  is  true  that  in  1901 
His  Majesty's  Government  decided  to  appoint  a  Consul  of  wide  African 
experience  to  reside  permanently  in  the  State,  but  his  time  has  been 
principally  occupied  in  the  investigation  of  complaints  preferred  by 
British  subjects,  and  he  has  as  yet  been  unable  to  travel  into  the 
interior  and  to  acquire,  by  personal  inspection,  knowledge  of  the 
condition  of  the  enormous  territory  forming  his  district. 

His  reports  on  the  cases  of  British  subjects,  which  have  formed  the 
basis  of  representations  to  the  Government  of  the  Independent  State, 
afford,  however,  examples  of  grave  maladministration  and  ill-treat- 
ment. These  cases  do  not  concern  natives  of  the  Congo  State,  and 
are  therefore  in  themselves  alien  to  the  subject  of  this  dispatch;  but 
as  they  occurred  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Boma,  the  seat  of  the 
central  staff,  and  in  regard  to  British  subjects,  most  of  whom  were 
under  formal  engagements,  they  undoubtedly  lead  to  the  belief  that 
the  natives,  who  have  no  one  in  the  position  of  a  Constd  to  whom  they 
can  appeal  and  have  no  formal  engagements,  receive  even  less  con- 
sideration at  the  hands  of  the  officers  of  the  Government. 

Moreover,  information  which  has  reached  His  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment from  British  officers  in  territory  adjacent  to  that  of  the  State 
tends  to  show  that,  notwithstanding  the  obligations  accepted  under 
Article  VI.  of  the  Berlin  Act,  no  attempt  at  any  administration  of  the 
natives  is  made,  and  that  the  officers  of  the  Government  do  not  ap- 
parently concern  themselves  with  such  work,  but  devote  all  their 
energy  to  the  collection  of  revenue.  The  natives  are  left  entirely  to 
themselves,  so  far  as  any  assistance  in  their  government  or  in  their 
affairs  is  concerned.  The  Congo  stations  are  shunned,  the  only 
natives  seen  being  soldiers,  prisoners,  and  men  who  are  brought  in  to 
work.  The  neighbourhood  of  stations  which  are  known  to  have  been 
populous  a  few  years  ago  is  now  uninhabited,  and  emigration  on  a 
large  scale  takes  place  to  the  territory  of  neighbouring  States,  the 
natives  usually  averring  that  they  are  driven  away  from  their  homes 
by  the  tyranny  and  exaction  of  the  soldiers. 

The  sentiments  which  undoubtedly  animated  the  founders  of  the 


57^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Congo  State  and  the  representatives  of  the  Powers  at  Berlin  were 
such  as  to  deserve  the  cordial  sympathy  of  the  British  Government, 
who  have  been  loath  to  believe  either  that  the  beneficent  intentions 
with  which  the  Congo  State  was  constituted,  and  of  which  it  gave  so 
solemn  a  pledge  at  Berlin,  have  in  any  way  been  abandoned,  or  that 
every  effort  has  not  been  made  to  realise  them. 

But  the  fact  remains  that  there  is  a  feeling  of  grave  suspicion, 
widely  prevalent  among  the  people  of  this  country,  in  regard  to  the 
condition  of  affairs  in  the  Congo  State,  and  there  is  a  deep  conviction 
that  the  many  charges  brought  against  the  State's  administration 
must  be  founded  on  a  basis  of  truth. 

In  these  circumstances,  His  Majesty's  Government  are  of  opinion 
that  it  is  incumbent  upon  the  Powers  parties  to  the  Berlin  Act  to 
confer  together  and  to  consider  whether  the  obligations  undertaken 
by  the  Congo  State  in  regard  to  the  natives  have  been  fulfilled;  and, 
if  not,  whether  the  Signatory  Powers  are  not  bound  to  make  such 
representations  as  may  secure  the  due  observance  of  the  provisions 
contained  in  the  Act. 

As  indicated  at  the  beginning  of  this  dispatch.  His  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment also  wish  to  bring  to  the  notice  of  the  Powers  the  question 
which  has  arisen  in  regard  to  rights  of  trade  in  the  basin  of  the  Congo. 

Article  I.  of  the  Berlin  Act  provides  that  the  trade  of  all  nations 
shall  enjoy  complete  freedom  in  the  basin  of  the  Congo;  and  Article 
V.  provides  that  no  Power  which  exercises  sovereign  rights  in  the  basin 
shall  be  allowed  to^grant  therein  a  monopoly  or  favour  of  any  kind  in 
matters  of  trade. 

In  the  opinion  of  His  Majesty's  Government,  the  system  of  trade 
now  existing  in  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo  is  not  in  harmony 
with  these  provisions. 

With  the  exception  of  a  relatively  small  area  on  the  Lower  Congo, 
and  with  the  further  exception  of  the  small  plots  actually  occupied 
by  the  huts  and  cultivation  patches  of  the  natives,  the  whole  territory 
is  claimed  as  the  private  property  either  of  the  State  or  of  holders  of 
land  concessions.  Within  these  regions  the  State  or,  as  the  case  may 
be,  the  concession-holder  alone  may  trade  in  the  natural  produce  of 
the  soil.  The  fruits  gathered  by  the  natives  are  accounted  the  prop- 
erty of  the  State,  or  of  the  concession-holder,  and  may  not  be  acquired 
by  others.  In  such  circumstances.  His  Majesty's  Government  are 
unable  to  see  that  there  exists  the  complete  freedom  of  trade  or  ab- 
sence of  monopoly  in  trade  which  is  required  by  the  Berlin  Act.  On 
the  contrary,  no  one  other  than  the  agents  of  the  State  or  of  the 
concession-holder  has  the  opportunity  to  enter  into  trade  relations 
with  the  natives;  or,  if  he  does  succeed  in  reaching  the  natives,  he 
finds  that  the  only  material  which  the  natives  can  give  in  exchange 
for  his  trade  goods  or  his  money  is  claimed  as  having  been  the  prop- 


Appendix  577 

erty  of  the  State  or  of  the  concession-holder  from  the  moment  it  was 
gathered  by  the  native. 

His  Majesty's  Government  in  no  way  deny  either  that  the  State 
has  the  right  to  partition  the  State  lands  among  bona- fide  occupants, 
or  that  the  natives  will,  as  the  land  is  so  divided  out  among  bona-fide 
occupiers,  lose  their  right  of  roaming  over  it  and  collecting  the  natural 
fruits  which  it  produces.  But  His  Majesty's  Government  maintain 
Ihat  until  unoccupied  land  is  reduced  into  individual  occupation,  and 
so  long  as  the  produce  can  only  be  collected  by  the  native,  the  native 
should  be  free  to  dispose  of  that  produce  as  he  pleases. 

In  these  circumstances.  His  Majesty's  Government  consider  that 
the  time  has  come  when  the  Powers  parties  to  the  Berlin  Act  should 
consider  whether  the  system  of  trade  now  prevailing  in  the  Inde- 
pendent State  is  in  harmony  with  the  provisions  of  the  Act;  and,  in 
particular,  whether  the  system  of  making  grants  of  vast  areas  of 
territory  is  permissible  under  the  Act  if  the  effect  of  stich  grants  is  in 
jjractice  to  create  a  monopoly  of  trade  by  excluding  all  pei^sons  other 
than  the  concession-holder  from  trading  with  the  natives  in  that 
area.  Such  a  result  is  inevitable  if  the  grants  are  made  in  favour  of 
persons  or  Companies  who  cannot  themselves  use  the  land  or  collect 
its  produce,  bvit  must  depend  for  obtaining  it  upon  the  natives,  who 
are  allowed  to  deal  only  with  the  grantees. 

His  Majesty's  Government  will  be  glad  to  receive  any  suggestions 
which  the  Governments  of  the  Signatory  Powers  may  be  disposed  to 
make  in  reference  to  this  important  question,  which  might  perhaps 
constitute,  wholly  or  in  part,  the  subject  of  a  reference  to  the  Tribunal 
at  the  Hague. 

I  request  that  you  will  read  this  dispatch  to  the  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  and  leave  a  copy  of  it  with  his  Excellency. 

I  am,  etc., 

(Signed)  Lansdowne. 

REPLY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  GOVERNMENT  TO 
THE  BRITISH  DISPATCH  OF  AUGUST  Stii,  TO 
THE  POWERS  SIGNATORY  TO  THE  BERLIN  ACT 

Brussels,  September  17,  1903. 

The  Government  of  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo  have 
examined  the  dispatch  from  the  Foreign  Office,  dated  the  8th  August 
last,  which  was  communicated  to  the  Signatory  Powers  of  the  Berlin 
Act,  and  declare  themselves  in  agreement  with  His  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment on  two  fundamental  points,  viz.,  that  natives  ought  to  be  treated 
with  humanity  and  gradually  led  into  the  paths  of  civilisation,  and 
that  freedom  of  commerce  in  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo 
ought  to  be  entire  and  complete. 


57^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

They  deny,  however,  that  the  manner  in  which  the  State  is  ad- 
ministered involves  a  systematic  regime  "of  cruelty  or  oppression," 
and  that  the  principle  of  commercial  freedom  would  introduce  modi- 
fications in  the  rights  of  property  as  universally  understood,  seeing 
that  there  is  not  a  word  to  this  effect  in  the  Berlin  Act.  The  Congo 
State  observes  that  there  is  in  that  Act  no  provision  which  would 
sanction  restrictions  of  any  kind  on  the  exercise  of  the  rights  of  prop- 
erty, or  give  to  one  Signatory  Power  the  right  of  intervention  in  the 
interior  administration  of  another.  It  desires  faithfully  to  observe 
the  Berlin  Act,  that  great  International  Act  which  binds  all  Signatory 
or  Adhering  Powers,  according  to  the  clear  grammatical  sense  of  the 
text,  which  none  has  power  either  to  take  from  or  add  to. 

The  English  note  observes  that  it  is  within  the  last  few  years  that  a 
definite  shape  has  been  assumed  by  the  campaign  conducted  in  Eng- 
land against  the  Congo  State,  on  the  two-fold  pretext  of  the  ill-treat- 
ment of  natives  and  the  existence  of  commercial  monopolies. 

It  is  indeed  worthy  of  remark  that  this  campaign  dates  from  the 
time  when  the  prosperity  of  the  State  became  assured.  The  State 
had  been  founded  for  years,  and  administered  in  the  same  way  as  it 
is  now;  its  principles  in  regard  to  the  State-ownership  of  vacant  lands, 
and  the  manner  in  which  its  armed  forces  were  organised  and  recruited, 
were  known  to  the  public,  without  any  interest  in  the  matter  being 
shown  by  the  philanthropists  and  traders  to  whose  opinion  the  note 
begins  by  referring.  This  was  the  period  during  which  the  State 
Budget  could  only  be  balanced  by  means  of  the  King-Sovereign's 
subsidies  and  Belgian  loans,  and  when  the  commerce  of  the  Congo 
did  not  attract  attention.  The  term  "Congo  atrocities"  was  at  that 
time  only  used  in  connection  with  "the  alleged  ill-treatment  of  African 
natives  by  English  and  other  adventurers  in  the  Congo  Free  State."' 
After  1895  the  trade  of  the  Congo  State  developed  remarkably,  and 
the  amount  of  its  exports  shows  a  progressive  increase  from  ten  millions 
in  1895  to  fifty  millions  in  1902.  It  is  also  about  this  time  that  the  anti- 
Congo  movement  took  shape.  As  the  State  gave  increased  proof 
of  vitality  and  progress,  the  campaign  became  more  active,  reliance 
being  placed  on  a  few  individual  and  isolated  cases  with  a  view  to 
using  the  interests  of  humanity  as  a  pretext  and  concealing  the  real 
object  of  a  covetousness  which,  in  its  impatience,  has  betrayed  itself 
in  the  writings  of  pamphleteers  and  in  the  speeches  of  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  which  the  abolition  and  partition  of  the  Congo 
State  has  been  clearly  put  forward. 

Such  being  the  object  in  view,  it  became  necessary  to  bring  a  whole 
series  of  charges  against  the  State.  So  far  as  the  humanitarian  side  of 
the  question  is  concerned,  the  alleged  cases  of  violence  offered  to 
natives  have  once  more  been  brought  forward  and  re-edited  ad  infini- 

'  Transactions  of  the  Aborigines  Protection  Society,  1890-1896,  p.  155. 


Appendix  579 

turn.  For  in  all  the  meetings,  writings,  and  speeches  which  have 
latterly  been  directed  against  the  State,  it  is  always  the  same  facts 
which  are  brought  up,  and  the  same  evidence  which  is  produced. 
With  regard  to  the  economic  side  of  the  question,  the  State  has  been 
accused  of  having  violated  the  Act  of  Berlin,  notwithstanding  the 
legal  opinions  of  such  lawyers  as  are  most  qualified  to  speak  to  the 
point,  which  afford  ample  legal  justification  both  for  its  commercial 
and  for  its  land  system.  With  regard  to  the  political  side,  a  heresy 
in  international  law  has  been  imagined,  viz.,  that  a  State,  the  inde- 
pendence and  sovereignty  of  which  are  absolute,  should,  at  the  same 
time,  owe  its  position  to  the  intervention  of  Foreign  Powers. 

With  regard  to  the  cases  of  ill-treatment  of  natives,  we  attach 
special  importance  to  those  which,  according  to  the  note,  have  been 
reported  in  the  dispatches  of  His  Majesty's  Consular  Agents.  At  the 
sitting  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  nth  March,  1903,  Lord  Cran- 
bome  referred  to  these  official  documents,  and  we  have  requested 
through  his  Excellency  Sir  C.  Phipps  that  the  British  Government 
will  make  known  to  us  the  facts  alluded  to.     We  repeat  the  request. 

The  Government  of  the  State  have,  however,  never  denied  that 
crimes  and  offences  are  committed  in  the  Congo,  as  in  every  other 
country  or  colony.  The  note  itself  recognises  that  these  offences 
have  been  brought  before  the  Tribunals,  and  that  the  criminals  have 
been  ptmished.  The  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  this  is  that  the 
State  fulfils  its  mission;  the  conclusion  actually  drawn  is  that  "many 
individual  instances  of  cruelty  have  taken  place  in  the  Congo  State," 
and  that  "the  number  of  convictions  falls  considerably  short  of  the 
number  of  offences  actually  committed."  This  deduction  does  not 
appear  necessarily  to  follow.  It  would  seem  more  logical  to  say  that 
the  severe  sentences  inflicted  will  serve  as  a  wholesome  example,  and 
that  a  decrease  of  crime  may  on  that  account  be  looked  for.  If  some 
offences  have  indeed,  in  the  extensive  territories  of  the  State,  escaped 
the  vigilance  of  the  judicial  authorities,  this  is  a  circumstance  which 
is  not  peculiar  to  the  Congo  State. 

The  English  note  proceeds  chiefly  on  hypotheses  and  suppositions: 
"It  was  alleged  .  .  .  It  is  reported  .  .  .  It  is  also  reported  ..." 
and  it  even  says  that  "His  Majesty's  Government  do  not  know  pre- 
cisely to  what  extent  these  accusations  may  be  true."  This  is  an 
acknowledgment  that,  in  the  eyes  of  the  British  Government  them- 
selves, the  accusations  in  question  are  neither  established  nor  proved. 
And,  indeed,  the  violence,  the  passion,  and  the  improbability  of  many 
of  these  accusations  must  raise  doubt  in  an  impartial  mind  as  to  their 
genuineness.  To  give  but  one  example : — a  great  deal  has  been  made 
of  the  statement  that,  in  a  train  coming  down  from  Leopoldville  to 
Matadi,  three  carriages  were  full  of  slaves,  a  dozen  of  whom  were  in 
chains  and  guarded  by  soldiers.     The  Governor-General  was  asked 


580         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

for  a  report  on  the  case.  He  replied:  "The  individuals  represented 
as  composing  a  convoy  of  slaves  were,  the  great  majority  of  them 
(125),  levies  proceeding  from  the  district  of  Lualaba-Kassai,  Lake 
Leopold  IL,  and  the  Bangalas  to  the  camp  in  the  Lower  Congo. 
Annexed  you  will  find  lists  of  these  persons.  As  regards  the  men  in 
chains,  they  were  certain  individuals  on  whom  sentence  had  been 
passed  by  the  territorial  Tribunal  at  Basoko,  and  who  were  on  their 
way  to  undergo  their  sentence  at  the  central  prison  at  Boma.  They 
are  Nos.  3642  to  3649  on  the  prison  register  at  Boma." 

In  the  same  way,  quite  a  recent  "interview,"  in  which  the  usual 
accusations  of  cruelty  were  reproduced,  is  due  to  a  person  formerly 
in  the  employ  of  the  State,  who  was  "declared  unfit  for  service,"  and 
who  has  failed  to  persuade  the  State  to  accept  his  proposal  to  write 
for  the  press  articles  favourable  to  the  Administration. 

The  note  ignores  the  replies,  contradictions,  and  corrections  which 
the  attacks  on  the  agents  of  the  State  have  occasioned  at  the  various 
times  when  they  have  taken  place.  It  ignores  the  official  declara- 
tions publicly  made  by  the  Government  of  the  State  in  June  last, 
after  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  20th  May,  the 
report  of  which  is  annexed  to  the  note.  We  also  annex  the  text  of 
these  declarations  which  dealt,  by  anticipation,  with  the  considera- 
tions set  forth  in  the  dispatch  of  the  8th  August. 

The  only  fresh  cause  of  complaint  which  the  note  brings  forward — 
doubtless  with  the  object  of  explaining  the  not  unimportant  fact  that 
the  English  Consul,  who  has  resided  in  the  Congo  since  1901,  does  not 
appear  to  support,  by  his  personal  authority,  the  accusations  of 
private  individuals — is  that  this  agent  has  been  "principally  occu- 
pied in  the  investigation  of  complaints  preferred  by  British  subjects." 
The  impression  which  one  would  derive  from  this  is  that  such  com- 
plaints have  been  exceptionally  numerous.  No  doubt  the  Consul  has, 
on  different  occasions,  communicated  with  the  Administration  at 
Boma  in  the  interests  of  his  countrymen,  but  the  subjects  of  his 
representations,  if  one  may  judge  by  such  of  their  number  as  the 
English  Legation  has  had  to  bring  to  the  notice  of  the  Central  Govern- 
ment at  Brussels,  do  not  appear,  either  in  number  or  importance,  to 
have  been  more  than  matters  of  everyday  administrative  routine: 
some  cases  in  particular  concerned  the  regulation  of  the  succession  to 
property  in  the  Congo  left  by  deceased  English  subjects;  the  object 
in  others  was  to  repair  errors  of  judicial  procedure,  such  as  occur  else- 
where, and  it  is  not  even  alleged  that  the  proper  action  has  not  been 
taken  upon  these  representations.  The  same  Consul,  who  was  ap- 
pointed in  1898,  wrote  to  the  Governor-General  on  the  2nd  July, 
1 90 1,  as  follows: 

"I  pray  believe  me  when  I  express  now,  not  only  for  myself,  but 
for  my  fellow-countrymen  in  this  part  of  Africa,  our  very  sincere  ap- 


Appendix  581 

preciation  of  your  eflForts  on  behalf  of  the  general  community — eflEorts 
to  promote  goodwill  among  all  and  to  bring  together  the  various  ele- 
ments of  our  local  life." 

Nor  do  the  predecessors  of  Mr.  R.  Casement — for  English  Consuls 
with  jurisdiction  in  the  Congo  were  appointed  by  His  Majesty's 
Government  as  long  ago  as  1888 — appear  to  have  been  absorbed  in 
the  examination  of  innumerable  complaints;  at  all  events,  that  is 
not  the  view  taken  in  the  Report  (the  only  one  published)  by  Consul 
Pickersgill,  who,  by  the  mere  fact  of  giving  an  account  of  his  journey 
into  the  interior  of  the  Congo  as  far  as  Stanley  Falls,  disproves  the 
alleged  impossibility  for  the  English  consular  agents  to  form  an 
opinion  de  visu  in  regard  to  every  part  of  their  district. 

With  regard  to  the  charges  against  the  administrative  system  of 
the  State,  the  note  deals  with  taxes,  public  armed  forces,  and  what  is 
termed  forced  labour. 

It  is,  at  bottom,  the  contributions  made  by  the  Congo  natives  to  the 
public  charges  which  are  criticised,  as  if  there  existed  a  single  country 
or  colony  in  which  the  inhabitants  do  not,  under  one  form  or  another, 
bear  a  part  in  such  charges.  A  State  without  resources  is  inconceiv- 
able. On  what  legitimate  grounds  could  the  exemption  of  natives 
from  all  taxes  be  based,  seeing  that  they  are  the  first  to  benefit  by 
the  material  and  moral  advantages  introduced  into  Africa?  As  they 
have  no  inoney,  a  contribution  in  the  shape  of  labour  is  required  from 
them.  It  has  been  said  that,  if  Africa  is  ever  to  be  redeemed  from 
barbarism,  it  must  be  by  getting  the  Negro  to  understand  the  meaning 
of  work  by  the  obligation  of  paying  taxes. 

"It  is  a  question  [of  native  labour]  which  has  engaged  my  most 
careful  attention  in  connection  with  West  Africa  and  other  Colonies. 
To  listen  to  the  right  honourable  gentlemen,  you  would  almost  think 
that  it  would  be  a  good  thing  for  the  native  to  be  idle.  I  think  it  is 
a  good  thing  for  him  to  be  industrious;  and  by  every  means  in 
our  power  we  must  teach  him  to  work.  .  .  .  No  people  ever 
have  lived  in  the  world's  history  who  would  not  work.  In  the 
interests  of  the  natives  all  over  Africa,  we  have  to  teach  them  to 
work." 

Such  was  the  language  used  by  Mr.  Chamberlain  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  6th  August,  1901;  and  still  more  recently  he  ex- 
pressed himself  as  follows: 

"We  are  all  of  us  taxed,  and  taxed  heavily.  Is  that  a  system  of 
forced  labour?     .     .  To  say  that  because  we  put  a  tax  on  the 

native  therefore  he  is  reduced  to  a  condition  of  servitude  and  of  forced 
labour  is,  to  my  mind,  absolutely  ridiculous.     .  .     It  is  perfectly 

fair  to  my  mind  that  the  native  should  contribute  something  towards 
the  cost  of  administering  the  country." — (House  of  Commons,  9th 
March,  1903.) 


582  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

"  If  that  really  is  the  last  word  of  civilisation,  if  we  arc  to  proceed  on 
the  assumption  that  the  nearer  the  native  or  any  human  being  comes 
to  a  pig  the  more  desirable  is  his  condition,  of  course  I  have  nothing 
to  say.  ...  I  must  continue  to  believe  that,  at  all  events,  the 
progress  of  the  native  in  civilisation  will  not  be  secured  until  he  has 
been  convinced  of  the  necessity  and  the  dignity  of  labour.  Therefore, 
I  think  that  anything  we  reasonably  can  do  to  induce  the  native  to 
labour  is  a  desirable  thing." 

And  he  defended  the  principle  of  taxing  the  native  on  the  ground 
that  "the  existence  of  the  tax  is  an  inducement  to  him  to  work." — 
(House  of  Commons,  24th  March,  1903.) 

Moreover,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  in  nearly  every  part  of  Africa  the 
natives  are  taxed.  In  the  Transvaal  every  native  pays  a  "head  tax" 
oi  £2;  in  the  Orange  River  Colony  he  is  subject  to  a  "poll  tax";  in 
Southern  Rhodesia,  Bechuanaland,  Basutoland,  Uganda,  and  Natal 
a  "hut-tax"  is  levied;  in  Cape  Colony  we  find  a  "hut-tax"  and  a 
"labour  tax";  in  German  East  Africa  also  a  tax  is  levied  on  huts, 
payable  either  in  money,  in  kind,  or  in  labour.  This  species  of  tax 
has  also  been  applied  in  the  Sierra  Leone  Protectorate,  where  payment 
could  be  made  "in  kind  by  rice  or  palm  nuts,"  and  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that  work  on  roads  and  useful  works  should  be  accepted  in  lieu 
of  payment  in  money  or  produce. 

The  legality  of  a  tax  is,  therefore,  not  affected  by  the  mode  of  its 
payment,  whether  in  money  or  in  kind,  so  long  as  the  amount  is  not 
excessive.  It  is  certainly  not  so  in  the  Congo,  where  the  work  done  by 
the  native  does  not  represent  more  than  forty  hours'  work  a  inonth. 
Such  work,  moreover,  is  paid  for,  and  the  tax  in  kind  thus  gives  the 
native  as  it  were  some  return  for  his  labour. 

Payment  of  taxes  is  obligatory  everywhere;  and  non-payment  in- 
volves measures  of  compulsion.  The  regulations  under  which  the 
hut- tax  is  levied  impose  on  the  native,  for  non-payment,  such  penalties 
as  imprisonment  and  forced  labour.  Nor  in  the  Congo  is  payment 
of  taxes  optional.  Repressive  measures  have  occasionally  been  ren- 
dered necessary  elsewhere  by  the  refusal  of  natives  to  conform  to  the 
law,  c.  g.,  the  disturbances  at  Sierra  Leone,  in  connection  with  which 
an  English  publicist,  speaking  of  the  police  force,  states: 

"Between  July,  1894,  and  February,  1896,  no  fewer  than  sixty-two 
convictions,  admittedly  representing  a  small  proportion  of  offences 
actually  committed,  were  recorded  against  them  for  flogging,  plunder- 
ing, and  generally  maltreating  the  natives." 

Further  instances  might  be  recalled  of  the  opposition  encountered 
among  native  populations  to  the  institution  of  governmental  regula- 
tions. Civilisation  necessarily  comes  into  collision  with  their  savage 
instincts  and  barbarous  customs  and  habits ;  and  it  can  be  understood 
that  they  submit  but  impatiently  to,  and  even  try  to  escape  from,  a 


Appendix  583 

state  of  society  which  seems  to  them  to  be  restrictive  of  their  licence 
and  excesses.  It  frequently  happens  in  Africa  that  an  exodus  of 
natives  takes  place  from  one  territory  to  another,  in  the  hope  of 
finding  beyond  the  frontier  a  government  less  well  established  or  less 
strong,  and  of  thus  freeing  themselves  from  all  obligations  and  re- 
straints. Natives  of  the  State  may  quite  well,  under  the  influence 
of  considerations  of  this  kind,  have  crossed  into  neighbouring  terri- 
tories, although  no  kind  of  emigration  on  a  large  scale,  such  as  is 
referred  to  in  the  English  note,  has  ever  been  reported  by  the  com- 
mandants of  the  frontier  provinces.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  fact  that 
natives  in  the  Upper  Nile  region  who  had  settled  in  British  territory 
have  returned  to  the  left  bank  in  consequence  of  the  imposition  of  new 
taxes  by  the  English  authorities.  Besides,  if  it  is  these  territories 
which  are  alluded  to,  the  information  contained  in  the  note  would 
seem  to  be  in  contradiction  with  other  particulars  furnished,  for  in- 
stance, by  Sir  Harry  Johnston. 

"This  much  I  can  speak  of  with  certainty  and  emphasis,  that  from 
the  British  frontier  near  Fort  George  to  the  limit  of  my  journeys 
into  the  Mbuba  country  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  up  and  down  the 
Semliki,  the  natives  appear  to  be  prosperous  and  happy.  .  .  .  The 
extent  to  which  they  were  building  their  villages  and  cultivating  their 
plantations  within  the  precincts  of  Fort  Mbeni  showed  that  they  had 
no  fear  of  the  Belgians." 

Major  H.  H.  Gibbons,  who  was  for  several  months  on  the  Upper 
Nile,  writes: 

"Having  had  occasion  to  know  many  officers,  and  to  visit  their 
stations  in  the  Congo  State,  I  am  convinced  that  their  behaviour  has 
been  much  misunderstood  by  the  press.  I  have  quoted  as  a  proof  my 
experience,  which  is  at  variance  with  an  article  recently  published  in 
the  English  press,  in  which  they  are  accused  of  great  cruelties." 

The  declaration  of  last  June,  of  which  a  copy  is  enclosed,  has  dis- 
posed of  the  criticisms  directed  against  the  public  forces  of  the  State, 
by  pointing  out  that  recruitment  for  them  is  regulated  by  law,  and 
that  it  is  only  one  man  in  every  10,000  who  is  affected.  To  say  that 
"the  method  of  obtaining  men  for  military  service  is  often  but  little 
different  from  that  formerly  employed  to  obtain  slaves"  is  to  mis- 
understand the' carefully  drawn  regulations  which  have,  on  the  con- 
trary, been  issued  to  check  abuses.  Levies  take  place  in  each 
district ;  the  District  Commissioners  settle  the  mode  of  conscription  in 
agreement  with  the  native  chiefs.  Voluntary  enlistment,  and  numer- 
ous re-enlistments,  easily  fill  up  the  ranks,  which  only  reach,  all  told, 
the  moderate  total  of  15,000  men. 

Those  who  allege,  as  the  note  says,  that  "the  men  composing  the 
armed  force  of  the  State  were  in  many  cases  recruited  from  the  most 
warlike  and  savage  tribes"  must  be  unaware  that  the  public  forces 


584  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

are  recruited  from  every  province,  and  from  the  whole  population. 
It  is  inconceivable  that  the  authorities  of  a  State,  with  due  regard  to 
its  interests,  should  form  an  army  out  of  undisciplined  and  savage 
elements,  and  instances  are  to  be  found — such  as  the  excesses  said  to 
have  been  perpetrated  by  irregular  levies  in  Uganda,  and  the  revolts 
which  formerly  occurred  in  the  Congo — which,  on  the  contrary,  ren- 
der it  necessary  that  special  care  should  be  exercised  in  raising  armed 
forces.  The  European  establishment,  consisting  of  Belgian,  Italian, 
Swedish,  Norwegian,  and  Danish  officers,  maintains  strict  discipline, 
and  it  would  be  vain  to  seek  the  actual  facts  alluded  to  in  the  assertion 
that  the  soldiers  "not  infrequently  terrorised  over  their  own  officers." 
Such  an  assertion  is  as  unfounded  as  the  one  "that  compulsion  is 
often  exercised  by  irresponsible  native  soldiers  uncontrolled  by  any 
European  officer."  For  a  long  time  past  the  authorities  have  been 
alive  to  the  danger  arising  from  the  existence  of  stations  of  Negro 
soldiers,  who  inevitably  abuse  their  authority,  as  recognised  in  the 
Report  of  Sir  D.  Chalmers  on  the  insurrection  in  Sierra  Leone.  In  the 
Congo  such  stations  have  been  gradually  abolished. 

Those  who  do  not  refuse  to  accept  patent  facts  will  recognise  that,  of 
the  reproaches  levelled  at  the  State,  the  most  unjust  is  the  statement 
"that  no  attempt  at  any  administration  for  the  natives  is  made,  and 
that  the  officers  of  the  Government  do  not  apparently  concern  them- 
selves with  such  work." 

It  is  astonishing  to  come  across  such  an  assertion  in  a  dispatch 
from  a  government,  one  of  whose  members.  Lord  Cranborne,  Under- 
Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  stated  on  the  20th  May 
last: 

"There  was  no  doubt  that  the  administration  of  the  Congo  Govem- 
inent  had  been  marked  by  a  very  high  degree  of  a  certain  kind  of  ad- 
ministrative development.  There  were  railways,  there  were  steamers 
upon  the  river,  hospitals  had  been  established,  and  all  the  machinery 
of  elaborate  judicial  and  police  systems  had  been  set  up." 

Another  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  acknowledged : 

"That  the  Congo  State  had  done  good  work  in  excluding  alcoholic 
liquor  from  the  greater  part  of  their  domain ;  that  they  had  estab- 
lished a  certain  number  of  hospitals,  had  diminished  smallpox  by 
means  of  vaccination,  and  had  suppressed  the  Arab  Slave  Trade." 

However  limited  these  admissions,  still  they  contradict  the  assertion 
now  made  that  "the  natives  are  left  entirely  to  themselves,  so  far  as 
any  assistance  in  their  government  or  in  their  affairs  is  concerned." 

Such  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the  conclusion  at  which  Mr.  Pick- 
ersgill,  the  English  Consul,  had  arrived  as  long  ago  as  1898. 

"Has  the  welfare  of  the  African,"  he  asks,  "been  duly  cared  for 
in  the  Congo  State?"  He  answers:  "The  State  has  restricted  the 
liquor  trade.     ...     It    is    scarcely  possible    to    overestimate  the 


Appendix  585 

service  which  is  being  rendered  by  the  Congo  Government  to  its  sub- 
jects in  this  inatter.  .  .  .  Intertribal  wars  have  been  suppressed 
over  a  wide  area,  and  the  imposition  of  European  authority  being 
steadily  pursued,  the  boundaries  of  peace  are  constantly  extending. 
The  State  must  be  congratulated  upon  the  security  it  has 
created  for  all  who  live  within  the  shelter  of  its  flag  and  abide  by  its 
laws  and  regulations.  .  .  .  Credit  is  also  due  to  the  Congo  Gov- 
ernment in  respect  of  the  diminution  of  cannibalism.  .  .  .  The 
yoke  of  the  notorious  Arab  slave-traders  has  been  broken,  and  traffic 
in  human  beings  amongst  the  natives  themselves  has  been  diminished 
to  a  considerable  degree." 

This  Report  also  showed  that  the  labour  of  the  native  was  remu- 
nerated, and  gave  due  credit  to  the  State  for  its  efforts  to  instruct  the 
young  natives,  and  to  open  schools. 

Since  1898  the  general  condition  of  the  native  has  been  still  further 
improved.  The  system  of  carriers  {le  portage  a  dos  d'homme),  the 
hardships  of  which,  so  far  as  the  native  was  concerned,  were  speciallv 
pointed  out  by  Mr.  Pickersgill,  has  disappeared  from  those  parts  of 
the  country  where  it  was  most  practised,  in  consequence  of  the  open- 
ing of  railways.  Elsewhere  motor  cars  are  used  as  means  of  trans- 
port. The  "sentry,"  the  station  of  Negro  soldiers  which  the  Consul 
criticised,  not  without  reason,  no  longer  exists.  Cattle  have  been 
introduced  into  every  district.  Sanitary  commissions  have  been  in- 
stituted.    Schools  and  workshops  have  multiplied. 

"The  native,"  says  the  enclosed  document,'  "is  better  housed, 
Ijetter  clad,  and  better  fed;  he  is  replacing  his  huts  by  better  built  and 
healthier  dwelling-places;  thanks  to  existing  transport  facilities,  he 
is  able  to  obtain  the  produce  necessary  to  satisfy  his  new  wants; 
workshops  have  been  opened  for  him,  where  he  learns  handicrafts, 
such  as  those  of  the  blacksmith,  carpenter,  mechanic,  and  mason;  he 
extends  his  plantations  and,  taking  example  by  the  white  man,  learns 
rational  modes  of  agriculture;  he  is  always  able  to  obtain  medical 
assistance ;  he  sends  his  children  to  the  State  school-colonies  and  to 
the  missionary  schools." 

As  stated  in  the  House  of  Commons,  it  is  only  right  to  recognise 
that  the  material  and  moral  regeneration  of  Central  Africa  cannot  be 
the  work  of  a  day.  The  results  so  far  obtained  have  been  considerable, 
and  these  we  shall  try  to  consolidate  and  develop,  in  spite  of  the  way 
in  which  an  effort  is  being  made  to  hamper  the  action  of  the  State, 
which  in  the  real  interests  of  civilisation  should  rather  be  promoted. 

The  English  note  does  not  show  that  the  economic  system  of  the 

State  is  in  opposition  to  the  Berlin  Act.     It  does  not  meet  the  points 

of  law  and  fact  by  means  of  which  the  State  has  demonstrated  the 

conformity  of  its  system  of  land  tenure  and  concessions  with  the  pro- 

'See  Annex  No.  I. 


586         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

visions  of  that  Act.  It  does  not  explain  either  how  or  why  freedom 
of  trade — a  term  used  at  the  Conference  of  BerUn  in  its  usual,  gram- 
matical, and  economic  sense — is  incomplete  in  the  Congo  State  be- 
cause there  are  landowners  there. 

The  note  confuses  the  utilisation  of  his  property  by  the  owner  with 
trade.  The  native  who  collects  on  behalf  of  the  owner  does  not  be- 
come the  owner  of  what  is  so  collected,  and  naturally  cannot  dispose 
of  it  to  a  third  party,  any  more  than  a  miner  can  rob  the  proprietor 
of  the  produce  of  the  mine  and  dispose  of  it  himself.  These  rules 
are  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  justice  and  are  explained  in 
numerous  doctunents,  such  as  legal  opinions  and  judicial  decisions, 
some  of  which  are  annexed.  His  Majesty's  Government  do  not  deny 
that  the  State  is  justified  in  allotting  domain  lands  to  bona-fide  occu- 
pants, or  that  the  native  has  no  longer  any  right  to  the  produce  of  the 
soil  as  soon  as  the  "land  is  reduced  into  individual  occupation."  The 
distinction  is  without  legal  foundation.  If  the  State  can  part  with 
land,  it  is  because  the  native  is  not  the  owner;  by  what  title  could  he 
then  retain  a  right  to  the  produce  of  property  which  has  been  lawfully 
acquired  by  others?  Could  it  be  contended,  for  instance,  that  the 
Lower  Congo  Railway  Company,  or  the  South  Cameroons  Company, 
or  the  Italian  Colonial  Trading  Company  are,  on  the  ground  that 
they  are  not  at  present  in  occupation,  bound  to  allow  the  native 
to  plunder  the  territories  allotted  to  them?  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
moreover,  in  the  Congo  State  the  appropriation  of  lands  worked  on 
Government  account  or  by  the  Concessionary  companies  is  an  ac- 
complished fact.  The  State  and  the  companies  have  devoted  large 
stmis,  amounting  to  many  millions  of  francs,  to  the  development  of  the 
lands  in  question,  and  more  especially  to  that  of  the  forests.  There 
can,  therefore,  be  no  doubt  that  throughout  the  territories  of  the  Congo 
the  State  really  and  completely  works  its  property,  just  as  the  com- 
panies really  and  completely  work  their  concessions. 

The  state  of  affairs  then  which  actually  exists,  and  is  established  in 
the  Independent  State,  is  such  that  there  is  really  no  need,  as  far  as  the 
State  itself  is  concerned,  to  dwell  longer  on  the  theory  set  forth  in  the 
note  which  deals  in  turn  with  the  rights  of  the  State,  with  those  of 
bona-fide  occupiers,  and  those  of  the  natives. 

Still  this  theory  calls  for  the  attention  of  the  Powers  in  view  of  the 
serious  difficulties  which  would  arise  were  it  to  be  implicitly  accepted. 

The  note  lays  down  the  three  following  propositions: 

"The  State  has  the  right  to  partition  the  State  lands  among  bona- 
fide  occupants." 

"  The  natives  will,  as  the  land  is  so  divided  out  amongst  bona-fide 
occupiers,  lose  their  right  of  roaming  over  it  and  collecting  the  natural 
fruits  which  it  produces." 

"Until  unoccupied  land  is  reduced  into  individual  occupation,  and 


Appendix  587 

so  long  as  the  produce  can  only  be  collected  by  the  native,  the  native 
should  be  free  to  dispose  of  that  produce  as  he  pleases." 

There  is  no  single  one  of  these  propositions  but  apparently  excludes 
the  other  two,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  such  contradictions  amount 
to  a  denial  of  the  right  to  grant  concessions. 

If  bona-fide  occupiers  ever  existed  they  have  become  proprietors; 
occupation,  where  it  can  be  exercised  is,  under  all  legislative  codes, 
one  of  the  methods  by  which  property  can  be  acqmred,  and  in  the 
Congo  State  titles  of  ownership  deriving  from  it  have  been  legally 
registered.  If  the  land  has  never  been  legally  occupied,  it  is  without 
an  owner,  or,  rather  the  State  is  the  owner;  the  State  can  allot  it  to  a 
third  party,  for  whom  such  allotment  is  a  complete  and  absolute  title. 
In  either  case  it  is  hard  to  see  how  the  fruits  of  the  soil  can  be  reserved 
for  any  but  the  owner  on  the  pretext  that  the  latter  is  not  able  to 
collect  the  produce  of  his  property. 

By  a  curious  contradiction  it  is  observed  in  the  note  that,  as  a 
consequence  of  the  allotment  of  lands  by  the  State,  the  natives  "lose 
their  right  of  collecting  the  natural  fruits,"  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  they  retain  the  right  of  disposing  of  these  fruits  "until  unoccu- 
pied land  is  reduced  into  [sic]  individual  occupation."  It  is  difficult  to 
understand  what  is  meant  by  a  right  which  belongs  to  the  natives  or 
not  according  to  the  action  of  a  third  party.  Either  they  lost  their 
rights  on  the  lands  being  allotted,  and  in  that  case  they  have  lost  them 
entirely  and  completely,  or  else  they  have  retained  them,  and  are 
entitled  to  retain  them,  although  the  "land  is  reduced  into  [sic]  indi- 
vidual occupation." 

Again,  what  are  we  to  understand  by  the  expressions  "bona-fide" 
occupiers  and  ' '  individual  occupation  ? "  Who  is  to  determine  whether 
the  occupier  has  brought  his  lands  into  a  state  of  individual  occupa- 
tion, whether  he  is  able  to  collect  their  produce,  or  whether  it  is  still 
for  the  native  to  do  so?  In  any  case,  such  a  question  is  essentially 
one  to  be  settled  by  municipal  law. 

The  note  is,  moreover,  incomplete  in  another  respect.  It  states 
that  where  the  land  has  not  yet  been  worked  by  those  who  have  a 
right  to  it,  the  option  of  working  should  belong  to  the  native.  Rights 
would  thus  be  given  to  the  natives  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Government 
or  of  white  concessionaires,  but  the  note  does  not  explain  how  nor  by 
whom  the  wrong  thus  caused  would  be  repaired  or  made  good.  Though 
the  system  thus  advocated  cannot  be  applied  in  the  Congo  State,  as 
there  are  no  longer  any  unappropriated  lands  there,  attention  should 
be  called  to  the  statement  in  the  interest  of  white  men  established  in 
the  Conventional  Basin.  If  it  is  right  to  treat  the  Negro  well,  it  is 
none  the  less  just  not  to  despoil  the  white  man,  who,  in  the  interest  of 
all,  must  remain  the  dominant  race. 

From  an  economic  point  of  view,  it  would  be  very  regrettable  if,  in 


588  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

spite  of  the  rights  regularly  acqmred  by  white  men,  the  domain  lands 
were,  even  temporarily,  handed  over  to  the  natives.  Such  a  course 
would  involve  a  return  to  their  former  condition  of  abandonment, 
when  the  natives  left  them  unproductive ;  for  the  collection  of  rubber, 
the  plantation  of  coffee,  cocoa,  tobacco,  etc.,  date  from  the  day  when 
the  State  itself  took  the  initiative :  the  export  trade  was  insignificant 
before  the  impetus  it  received  from  Government  enterprise.  Such  a 
course  would  furthermore  certainly  involve  the  neglect  of  rational 
methods  of  work,  of  planting  and  of  replanting — measures  which  the 
State  and  the  Concessionary  companies  have  assumed  as  an  obligation 
with  a  view  to  securing  the  preservation  of  the  natural  riches  of  the 
country. 

Never  in  the  Congo,  so  far  as  we  know,  have  requests  to  buy  natural 
produce  been  addressed  to  the  rightful  owners.  Up  to  now  the  only 
attempts  made  have  been  to  buy  the  produce  which  has  been  stolen, 
and  the  State,  as  was  its  duty,  has  had  those  guilty  of  these  unlawful 
attempts  prosecuted. 

It  is  not  true,  as  has  been  asserted,  that  the  policy  of  the  State  has 
killed  trade;  it  has,  on  the  contrary,  created  the  materials  which 
trade  deals  in  and  keeps  up  the  supply ;  it  is  thanks  to  the  State  that, 
on  the  Antwerp  market — and  soon  even  in  the  Congo  where  the  possi- 
biUty  of  establishing  trade  depots  is  being  considered — 5000  tons  of 
rubber  collected  in  the  Congo  can  be  annually  put  on  sale  to  all  and 
sundry  without  privilege  or  monopoly,  while  formerly,  in  1887,  for 
instance,  the  rubber  export  amounted  to  hardly  30  tons.  It  is  the 
State  which,  after  having  created,  at  its  own  expense,  the  material  of 
trade,  carefully  preserves  the  source  of  it  by  means  of  planting  and 
replanting. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  either  that  the  Congo  State  has  been 
obliged  to  rely  on  its  own  resources.  It  was  forced  to  utilise  its 
domain  in  the  public  interest.  All  the  receipts  of  the  domain  go  into 
the  Treasury,  as  also  the  dividends  of  the  shares  which  the  State  holds 
in  exchange  for  concessions  granted.  It  has  only  been  by  utilising 
its  domain  lands,  and  pledging  the  greater  part  of  their  revenues,  that 
it  has  been  able  to  raise  loans,  and  encourage  the  construction  of  rail- 
ways by  guarantees  of  interest,  thus  realising  one  of  the  means  most 
advocated  by  the  Brussels  Conference  for  promoting  civilisation  in 
Central  Africa.  Nor  has  it  hesitated  to  mortgage  its  domain  lands 
with  this  object. 

The  Berlin  Act  is  not  opposed  to  such  a  course,  for  it  never  pre- 
scribed the  rights  of  property  as  there  is  now  an  ex  post  facto  attempt 
to  make  out,  an  attempt  tending,  consciously  or  not,  to  the  ruin  of  the 
whole  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo. 

It  will  not  escape  the  notice  of  the  Powers  that  the  English  note, 
by  suggesting  a  reference  to  the  Court  at  the  Hague,  tends  to  bring 


Appendix  589 

into  consideration  as  cases  for  arbitration  questions  of  sovereigntv 
and  internal  administration  as  questions  for  arbitration  which,  ac- 
cording to  prevailing  doctrines,  are  excluded  from  arbitral  decisions. 
As  far  as  the  present  case  is  concerned,  it  must  be  assumed  that  the 
suggestion  of  referring  the  matter  to  the  Court  at  the  Hague  has  a 
general  meaning,  if  it  is  true  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  English 
Chambers  of  Commerce,  "the  principles  and  practice  introduced  into 
the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  French  Congo,  the  Congo  Free 
State,  and  other  areas  in  the  Conventional  Basin  of  the  Congo  being 
[sic]  in  direct  opposition  to  the  Articles  of  the  Act  of  Berlin,  1885." 
The  Government  of  the  Congo  State  have  never  ceased  advocating 
arbitration  as  a  mode  of  settling  questions  which  are  of  an  interna- 
tional nature,  and  can  thus  be  suitably  treated,  as,  for  instance,  the 
divergencies  of  opinion  which  have  arisen  in  connection  with  the  lease 
of  the  territories  of  the  Bahr-el-Ghazal. 

The  Government  of  the  Congo  State,  after  careful  examination  of 
the  English  note,  remain  convinced  that,  in  view  of  its  vagueness,  and 
the  complete  lack  of  evidence,  which  is  implicitly  admitted,  there 
is  no  tribunal  in  the  world,  supposing  there  were  one  possessing 
competent  jurisdiction,  which  could,  far  from  pronouncing  a  con- 
demnation, take  any  decision  other  than  to  refuse  action  on  mere 
supposition. 

If  the  Congo  State  is  attacked,  England  may  admit  that  she,  more 
than  any  other  nation,  has  been  the  object  of  attacks  and  accusations 
o{  every  kind,  and  the  list  would  be  long  of  the  campaigns  which  have 
at  various  times,  and  ev'^en  quite  recently,  been  directed  against  her 
colonial  administration.  She  has  certainly  not  escaped  criticism  in 
regard  to  her  numerous  and  bloody  wars  against  native  populations, 
nor  the  reproach  of  oppressing  natives  and  invading  their  liberty. 
Has  she  not  been  blamed  in  regard  to  the  long  insurrections  in  Sierra 
Leone;  to  the  disturbed  state  of  Nigeria,  where  quite  recently,  accord- 
ing to  the  English  newspapers,  military  measures  of  repression  cost, 
on  one  single  occasion,  the  lives  of  700  natives,  of  most  of  their  Chiefs, 
and  of  the  Sultan;  and  to  the  conflict  in  Somaliland,  which  is  being 
carried  on  at  the  cost  of  many  lives,  without,  however,  exciting  ex- 
pressions of  regret  in  the  House  of  Commons,  except  on  the  score  of 
the  heavy  expense? 

Seeing  that  these  attacks  have  left  England  indifferent,  it  is  some 
what  surprising  to  find  her  now  attaching  such  importance  to  those 
made  on  the  Congo  State. 

There  is,  however,  reason  to  think  that  the  natives  of  the  Congo 
State  prefer  the  Government  of  a  small  and  pacific  nation,  whose  aims 
remain  as  peaceful  as  its  creation,  which  was  founded  on  treaties  con- 
cluded with  the  natives. 

(Signed)  Chr.  de  Cuvelier. 


590  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Annexes  ^ 

I.  Bulletin  Officiel  de  VEtat  Independant  du  Congo,  Juin,  1903. 

II.  Judgments  delivered  by  the  Tribunals  of  French  Congo. 

III.  Opinions  of  Messrs.  van  Maldeghem  and  de  Paepe,  Van  Ber- 
chem,  Barboux,  and  Nys. 

OFFICIAL  CORRESPONDENCE  BETWEEN  THE  CONGO 
FREE  STATE  AND  GREAT  BRITAIN 

The    Congo    Rejoinder    to    Charges    Contained    in    the 
Report  of  Consul  Casement 

The  Appendices  on  pages  591  to  611  are  taken  from  the 
official  correspondence  ^  sent  by  Sir  Constantino  Phipps,  his 
Britannic  Majesty's  Minister  at  Brussels,  to  the  Marquess  of 
Lansdovi^ne,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  Foreign  Secretary,  en- 
closing the  reply  of  the  Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
to  the  Report  of  Mr.  Roger  Casement,  British  Consul  at  Boma. 
Having  regard  to  the  voluminous  nature  of  Consul  Casement's 
report,  and  the  fact  that  the  Congo  State's  Note  (reply)  cites 
its  principal  charges  against  that  Government,  it  is  not  printed 
herewith,  to  expand  a  volume  already  extended  beyond  prac- 
tical dimensions. 

No.  I 
Sir  C.  Phipps  to  the  Marquess  of  Lansdowne. — {Received  March  14) 

Brussels,  March  13,  1904. 
My  Lord, 

I  have  the  honour  to  enclose  the  rejoinder  on  the  part  of  the  Congo 
Government  to  the  Report  of  His  Majesty's  Consul  at  Boma  on  the 
condition  of  the  Congo. 

In  handing  these  "Notes"  to  me  this  afternoon  M.  de  Cuvelier  was 
instructed  to  call  my  attention  to  the  passage  where  his  Government 
expresses  a  desire  to  be  placed  in  possession  of  the  fttll  Report,  in- 
cluding names,  dates,  and  places  referred  to.  The  "Notes"  will  be 
communicated  to-morrow  to  the  Representatives  of  the  other  Powers. 

I  have,  etc., 

(Signed)       Constantine  Phipps. 

^  Copies  have  been  sent  to  the  Library  of  each  House  of  Parliament. 
^See  Africa,  No.  7,   1904,  presented  to  both  Houses  of  Parliament, 
Jime,  1904. 


Appendix  591 


Enclosure  in  No.  i 

NOTES  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  CONGO  FREE 
STATE  ON  THE  REPORT  OF  MR.  CASEMENT, 
CONSUL  OF  HIS  BRITANNIC  MAJESTY,  OF  THE 
iiTH  DECEMBER,  1903.  • 

(Translation) 

During  the  sitting  of  the  House  of  Commons  of  the  nth  March, 
1903,  Lord  Cranborne  observed: 

"We  have  no  reason  to  think  that  slavery  is  recognised  by  the 
authorities  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  but  reports  of  acts  of  cruelty  and 
oppression  have  reached  us.  Such  reports  have  been  received  from 
our  Consvdar  Officers." 

The  Government  of  the  Congo  State  addressed  a  letter  on  the  14th 
March,  1903,  to  Sir  C.  Phipps,  requesting  him  to  be  good  enoi:gh  to 
communicate  the  facts  which  had  formed  the  subject  of  any  reports 
from  British  Consuls. 

No  reply  was  received  to  this  application. 

Lord  Lansdowne's  dispatch  of  the  8th  August,  1903,  contained  the 
following  passage: 

"Representations  to  this  effect  [alleged  cases  of  ill-treatment   of 
natives  and  existence  of  trade  monopolies]  are  to  be  found     . 
in  dispatches  from  His  Majesty's  Consuls." 

The  impression  was  thus  created  that  at  that  date  His  Majesty's 
Government  were  in  possession  of  conclusive  evidence  furnished  by 
their  Consuls;  but  none  the  less  it  seemed  clearly  necessary  that 
Consul  Casement  should  undertake  a  journey  in  the  Upper  Congo. 
It  would  appear,  therefore,  as  if  the  conclusions  contained  in  the  note 
of  the  8th  August  were  at  least  premature;  it  equally  follows  that, 
contrary  to  what  was  said  in  that  note,  the  British  Consul  was  at 
liberty  to  undertake  any  journey  in  the  interior  that  he  thought  fit. 
In  any  case  it  is  to  be  observed  that,  in  spite  of  the  repeated  appli- 
cations of  the  Congo  State,  the  White  Paper  [Africa,  No.  i  (1904)] 
recently  presented  to  Parliament  does  not  contain  any  of  these  former 
Consular  Reports,  which  nevertheless  would  have  been  the  more  in- 
teresting as  dating  from  a  time  when  the  present  campaign  had  not 
yet  been  initiated. 

The  present  Report  draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  certain  places 
visited  by  the  Consul  the  population  is  decreasing.  Mr.  Casement  does 
not  give  the  facts  on  which  he  bases  his  comparative  figures  for  1887 
and  1903.  The  question  arises  how,  during  the  course  of  his  rapid  and 
hasty  visits,  he  was  able  to  get  his  figures  for  this  latter  year.  On 
what  facts,  for  instance,  does  he  found  his  assertion  that  the  riverain 


592  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

population  of  Lake  Mantumba  seems  to  have  diminished  from  60  to 
70  per  cent,  in  the  course  of  the  last  ten  years?  He  states  that  at  a 
certain  place  designated  as  F the  population  of  all  the  villages  to- 
gether does  not  at  present  amount  to  more  than  500  souls;  a  few  lines 
farther  on  these  same  villages  are  spoken  of  as  only  containing  240 
inhabitants  altogether.  These  are  only  details,  but  they  show  at 
once  what  a  lack  of  precision  there  is  in  certain  of  the  deductions 
made  by  the  Consul.  It  is,  no  doubt,  unfortunately  only  too  true 
that  the  population  has  diminished ;  but  the  diminution  is  due  to 
other  causes  than  to  the  exercise  on  the  native  population  of  a  too 
exacting  or  oppressive  Administration.  It  is  owing  chiefly  to  the 
sleeping-sickness,  which  is  decimating  the  population  throughout 
Equatorial  Africa.  The  Report  itself  observes  that  "a  prominent 
place  must  be  assigned  to  this  malady,"  '  and  that  this  malady  is 
"probably  one  of  the  principal  factors"  in  the  diminution  of  the 
population.  2  It  is  only  necessary  to  read  the  Rev.  John  Whitehead's 
letter,  quoted  by  the  Consul  (Annex  II.  to  the  Report),  to  obtain  an 
idea  of  the  ravages  of  the  malady,  to  which  this  missionary  attributes 
half  of  the  deaths  which  take  place  in  the  riverain  parts  of  the  district. 
In  a  recent  interview  Mgr.  Van  Ronsle,  Vicar  Apostolic  of  the  Belgian 
Congo,  who  speaks  with  the  authority  of  one  who  has  had  a  large  ex- 
perience of  African  matters,  and  has  resided  for  long  periods  in  many 
different  localities  in  the  Congo,  explained  the  development  of  this 
scourge  and  the  inevitable  decay  of  the  population  it  attacks,  what- 
ever the  conditions  of  their  social  existence ;  mentioning  among  other 
cases  the  terrible  loss  of  life  caused  by  this  disease  in  Uganda.  If  to 
this  principal  cause  of  the  depopulation  of  the  Congo  are  added  small- 
pox epidemics,  the  inability  of  the  tribes  at  the  present  moment  to 
keep  up  their  numbers  by  the  purchase  of  slaves,  and  the  ease  with 
which  the  natives  can  migrate,  it  can  be  explained  how  the  Consul 
and  the  missionaries  may  have  been  struck  with  the  diminution  of 
the  number  of  inhabitants  in  certain  centres  without  that  diminution 
necessarily  being  the  result  of  a  system  of  oppression.  Annex  I.  con- 
tains the  declarations  on  the  subject  made  by  Mgr.  Van  Ronsle.  His 
remarks  as  to  the  effect  of  the  suppression  of  slavery  on  the  numbers 
of  the  population  are  printed  elsewhere : 

"The  people  [slave]  are  for  the  most  part  originally  prisoners  of 
war.  Since  the  Decree  of  emancipation  they  have  simply  returned 
to  their  own  distant  homes,  knowing  their  owners  have  no  power  to 
recapture  them.  This  is  one  reason  why  some  think  the  population  is 
decreasing,  and  another  reason  is  the  vast  exodus  up  and  down  river."  3 

"So  long  as  the  Slave  Trade  flourished  the  Bobangi  flourished,  but 

^  Report,  p.  21.  ^  Idem,  p.  26. 

3M.  Boudot,  missionary  of  the  Congo  Balolo  Mission.  Regions 
Beyond,  December,  1901,  p.  337. 


Appendix  593 

with  its  abolition  they  are  tending  to  disappear,  for  their  towns  were 
replenished  by  slaves."  ' 

The  Consvil  mentions  cases,  the  causes  of  which,  however,  are  un- 
known to  him,  of  an  exodus  of  natives  of  the  Congo  to  the  French 
bank.  It  is  not  quite  clear  on  what  grounds  he  attaches  blame  to  the 
State  on  their  account,  to  judge  at  least  from  the  motives  by  which 
some  of  them  have  been  determined — for  instance,  the  examples  of 
such  emigration  which  are  given  and  explained  by  the  Rev.  W. 
H.  Bentley,  an  English  missionary.  One  relates  to  the  station  at 
Lukolela : 

"The  main  difficiilty  has  been  the  shifting  of  the  population.  It 
appears  that  the  popvdation,  when  the  station  was  founded  in  1886, 
was  between  5,000  and  6,000  in  the  riverain  colonies.  About  two 
years  later  the  Chief  Mpuki  did  not  agree  with  his  neighbours  or  they 
with  him.  When  the  tension  became  acute,  Mpuki  crossed  over  with 
his  people  to  the  opposite  [French]  side  of  the  river.  This  exodus 
took  away  a  large  number  of  people.  In  1890  or  1891  a  chief  from 
one  of  the  lower  towns  was  compelled  by  the  majority  of  his  people 
to  leave  the  State  side,  and  several  went  with  him.  About  1893  the 
rest  of  the  people  at  the  lower  towns  either  went  across  to  the  same 
place  as  the  deposed  chief  or  took  up  their  residence  inland.  Towards 
the  end  of  1894  a  soldier,  who  had  been  sent  to  cut  firewood  for  the 
State  steamers  on  an  island  off  the  towns,  left  his  work  to  make  an 
evil  request  in  one  of  the  towns.  He  shot  the  man  who  refused  him. 
The  rascal  of  a  soldier  was  properly  dealt  with  by  the  State  officer  in 
charge ;  but  this  outrage  combined  with  other  smaller  difficulties  to 
produce  a  panic,  and  nearly  all  the  people  left  for  the  French  side,  or 
hid  away  inland.     So  the  fine  township  has  broken  up."  ^ 

The  other  refers  to  the  station  at  Bolobo: 

"It  is  rare  indeed  for  Bolobo,  with  its  30,000  or  40,000  people, 
divided  into  some  dozen  clans,  to  be  at  peace  for  any  length  of  time 
together.  The  loss  of  life  from  these  petty  wars,  the  number  of  those 
killed  for  witchcraft,  and  of  those  who  are  buried  alive  with  the  dead, 
involve,  even  within  our  narrow  limits  here  at  Bolobo,  an  almost  daily 
drain  upon  the  vitality  of  the  country,  and  an  incalculable  amount  of 
sorrow  and  suflFering.  .  .  .  The  Government  was  not  indifferent 
to  these  murderous  ways.  .  .  .  In  1890,  the  District  Commissioner 
called  the  people  together,  and  warned  them  against  the  burying  of 
slaves  alive  in  the  graves  of  free  people,  and  the  reckless  killing  of 
slaves  which  then  obtained.  The  natives  did  not  like  the  rising  power 
of  the  State.  .     .     Our  own  settlement  among  them  was  not  un- 

attended with  difficulty.  .  .  .  There  was  a  feeling  against  white 
men    generally,    and   especially    so   against   the   State.     The    people 

'  W.  H.  Bentley,  Pioneering  on  the  Congo,  ii.,  p.  229. 
^Idcm,  p.  243. 


594  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

became  insolent  and  haughty.  .  .  .  Just  at  this  time  ...  as 
a  force  of  soldiers  steamed  past  the  Moye  towns,  the  steamers  were 
fired  upon.  The  soldiers  landed  and  burnt  and  looted  the  towns. 
The  nativ^es  ran  away  into  the  grass,  and  great  numbers  crossed  to 
the  French  side  of  the  river.  They  awoke  to  the  fact  that  Bula  Ma- 
tadi,  the  State,  was  not  the  helpless  thing  they  had  so  long  thought. 
This  happened  early  in  1891."  ' 

It  will  be  seen  that  these  examples  do  not  attribute  the  emigration 
of  the  natives  to  any  such  causes  as 

"The  methods  employed  to  obtain  labour  from  them  by  local 
officials  and  the  exactions  levied  on  them."  ^ 

The  Report  dwells  at  length  on  the  existence  of  native  taxes.  It 
shows  how  the  natives  are  subject  to  forced  labour  of  various  kinds, 
in  one  district  having  to  furnish  the  Government  posts  with  "chik- 
wangues,"  or  fresh  provisions,  in  another  being  obliged  to  assist  in 
works  of  public  utility,  such  as  the  construction  of  a  jetty  at  Balolo, 

or  the  upkeep  of  the  telegraph  line  at  F ;   elsewhere  being  obliged 

to  collect  the  produce  of  the  domain  lands.  We  maintain  that  such 
imposts  on  the  natives  are  legitimate,  in  agreement  on  this  point  with 
His  Majesty's  Government,  who,  in  the  Memorandum  of  the  nth 
February  last,  declare  that  the  industry  and  development  of  the  Brit- 
ish Colonies  and  Protectorates  in  Africa  show  that  His  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment have  always  admitted  the  necessity  of  making  the  natives 
contribute  to  the  public  charges  and  of  inducing  them  to  work.  We 
also  agree  with  His  Majesty's  Government  that,  if  abuses  occur  in 
this  connection — and  undoubtedly  some  have  occurred  in  all  colonies 
— such  abuses  call  for  reform,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  authorities 
to  put  an  end  to  them,  and  to  reconcile  as  far  as  may  be  the  require- 
ments of  the  Government  with  the  real  interests  of  the  natives. 

But  in  this  matter  the  Congo  State  intends  to  exercise  freely  its 
rights  of  sovereignty — as,  for  instance.  His  Majesty's  Government 
explain  in  their  last  Memorandum  that  they  themselves  did  at  Sierra 
Leone — without  regard  to  external  pressure  or  foreign  interference, 
which  would  be  an  encroachment  upon  its  essential  rights. 

The  Consul,  in  his  Report,  obviously  endeavours  to  create  the  im- 
pression that  taxes  in  the  Congo  are  collected  in  a  violent,  inhuman, 
and  cruel  manner,  and  we  are  anxious  before  all  to  rebut  the  accusa- 
tion, which  has  so  often  been  brought  against  the  State,  that  such 
collection  gives  rise  to  odious  acts  of  mutilation.  On  this  point  a 
superficial  perusal  of  the  Report  is  calculated  to  impress  by  its  easy 
accumulation  not  of  facts,  simple,  precise,  and  verified,  but  of  the 
declarations  and  affirmations  of  natives. 

^  Pioneering  on  the  Congo,  by  the  Rev.  W.  Holman  Bentley,  ii, 
pp.  235-236. 

'^  Report,  p.  29. 


Appendix  505 

There  is  a  preliminary  remark  to  be  made  in  regard  to  the  conditions 
in  which  the  Consul  made  his  journey. 

Whether  such  was  his  intention  or  not,  the  British  Consul  appeared 
to  the  inhabitants  as  the  redresser  of  the  wrongs,  real  or  imaginary,  of 
the  natives,  and  his  presence  at  La  Lulonga,  coinciding  with  the  cam- 
paign which  was  being  directed  against  the  Congo  State,  in  a  region 
where  the  influence  of  the  Protestant  missionaries  has  long  been  ex- 
ercised, necessarily  had  for  the  natives  a  significance  which  did  not 
escape  them.  The  Consul  made  his  investigations  quite  independently 
of  the  Government  officials,  quite  independently  of  any  action  and  of 
any  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  regular  authorities ;  he  was  assisted 
in  his  proceedings  by  English  Protestant  missionaries;  he  made  his 
inspection  on  a  steamer  belonging  to  a  Protestant  Mission;  he  was 
entertained  for  the  most  part  in  the  Protestant  Missions;  and,  in 
these  circumstances,  it  was  inevitable  that  he  should  be  considered 
by  the  native  as  the  antagonist  of  the  established  authorities. 

Other  proof  is  not  required  than  the  characteristic  fact  that  while 
the  Consul  was  at  Bonginda,  the  natives  crowded  down  to  the  bank, 
as  some  agents  of  the  La  Lulonga  Company  were  going  by  in  a  canoe, 
and  cried  out:  "Your  violence  is  over,  it  is  passing  away;  only  the 
English  remain;  may  you  others  die!"  There  is  also  this  significant 
admission  on  the  part  of  a  Protestant  missionary,  who,  in  alluding  to 
this  incident,  remarked: 

"The  Consul  was  here  at  the  time,  and  the  people  were  much  ex- 
cited and  evidently  thought  themselves  on  top.  .  .  .  The  people 
have  got  this  idea  [that  the  rubber  work  was  finished]  into  their  heads 
of  themselves,  consequent,  I  suppose,  upon  the  Consul's  visit." 

In  these  circumstances,  in  view  of  the  state  of  mind  which  they  show 
to  exist  among  the  natives,  in  view  of  their  impressionable  character 
and  of  their  natural  desire  to  escape  taxation,  it  could  not  be  doubted 
that  the  conclusions  at  which  the  Consul  would  arrive  would  not  be 
other  than  those  set  forth  in  his  Report. 

To  bring  out  this  point,  and  to  show  how  little  value  is  to  be  at- 
tached to  his  investigations,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  examine  one  case, 
that  on  which  Mr.  Casement  principally  relies ;  we  allude  to  the  Epondo 
case.  It  is  that  of  the  child  II.,  mentioned  on  pp.  56,  58,  and  78  of  the 
Report. 

It  is  indispensable  to  enter  somewhat  at  length  into  the  details  of 
this  case,  which  are  significant. 

On  the  4th  September,  1903,  the  Consul  was  at  the  Bonginda  sta- 
tion of  the  Congo  Balolo  Mission,  having  returned  from  a  journey  on 
the  Lopori,  during  the  course  of  which  he  had  not  come  across  any  of 
those  acts  of  mutilation  which  it  is  the  custom  to  attribute  to  officials 
in  the  Congo. 

At  Bonginda,  the  natives  of  a  neighbouring  village  (Bossunguma) 


59^         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

came  to  him  and  informed  him,  amongst  other  things,  that  a  "sentry  " 
of  the  La  Lulonga  Company,  named  Kalengo,'  had,  at  Bossunguma, 
cut  ofif  the  hand  of  a  native  called  Epondo,  whose  wounds  were  still 
scarcely  healed.  The  Consul  proceeded  to  Bossunguma,  accompanied 
by  the  Rev.  W.  D.  Armstrong  and  the  Rev.  D.  J.  Danielson,  and  had 
the  mutilated  native  brought  before  him,  who,  "in  answer  to  the  Con- 
sul's question,  charged  a  sentry  named  '  Kalengo '  (placed  in  the  town  by 
the  local  agent  of  the  La  Lulonga  Society  to  see  that  the  people  work 
rubber)"  with  having  done  it.  Such  are  the  Consul's  own  words:  it 
was  necessary  to  establish  a  relation  of  cause  and  effect  between  the 
collection  of  india-rubber  and  this  alleged  case  of  cruelty. 

The  Consul  proceeded  to  question  the  chief  and  some  of  the  natives 
of  the  village.  They  replied  by  accusing  Kalengo;  most  of  them 
asserted  that  they  were  eye-witnesses  of  the  deed.  The  Consul  in- 
quired through  his  interpreters  if  there  were  other  witnesses  who  saw 
the  crime  committed  and  accused  Kalengo  of  it.  "Nearly  all  those 
present,  about  forty  persons,  shouted  out  with  one  voice  that  it  was 
'Kalengo'  who  did  it." 

In  order  to  understand  the  violence  with  which  the  natives  accused 
Kalengo,  and  the  unanimous  manner  in  which  the  denials  of  the  ac- 
cused were  rejected  by  his  accusers,  it  is  necessary  to  read  the  whole  of 
the  report  of  this  inquiry,  as  drawn  up  by  the  Consul  himself  in  a  kind 
of  proces-verbaux,  dated  the  7th,  8th,  and  gth  September  (Annex  IL). 
From  all  quarters  accusers  appeared,  and  the  excited  crowd  gave  vent 
to  all  sorts  of  accusations:  he  had  cut  off  Epondo 's  hand,  chained  up 
women,  stolen  ducks  and  a  dog!  The  Constil  did  not  allow  his  sus- 
picions to  be  aroused  by  the  passionate  character  of  these  accvisations ; 
without  any  further  guarantee  of  their  sincerity  or  further  examina- 
tion into  their  truth,  he  looked  upon  his  inquiry  as  conclusive,  and  as 
he  had  taken  upon  himself  the  duties  of  the  Public  Prosecutor  in  making 
preliminary  inquiries  into  the  matter,  so  he  anticipated  the  decision 
of  the  responsible  authorities  by  declaring  to  the  assembled  people 
that  "Kalengo  deserved  severe  punishment  for  his  illegal  and  cruel 
acts."  He  proceeded  to  dramatise  the  incident  by  carrying  off  the 
pretended  victim,  and  exhibiting  him  on  the  loth  September  to  the 
official  in  command  of  the  station  at  Coquilhatville,  to  whom  he  handed 
a  copy  of  the  record  of  his  inquiry,  and  on  the  1 2th  September  he  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  the  Governor-General  which  he  marked  as  "  per- 
sonal and  private,"  and  in  which  he  makes  the  incident  in  question 
among  others  a  text  for  an  attack  on  "the  system  of  general  exploita- 
tion of  an  entire  population  which  can  only  be  rendered  successful  by 
the  employment  of  arbitrary  and  illegal  force."  His  inquiry  ter- 
minated, he  immediately  started  on  his  return  journey  to  the  Lower 
Congo. 

*  K.  K.  in  Africa,  No.  i  (1904). 


Appendix  597 

Even  if  the  circumstances  had  been  correctly  reported,  the  dispro- 
portion would  still  have  been  striking  between  them  and  the  conclu- 
sions which  the  Consul  draws  when  emphasising  his  general  criticisms  of 
the  Congo  State.    But  the  facts  themselves  are  incorrectly  represented. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  no  sooner  did  the  Consul's  denunciation  reach 
the  Public  Prosecutor's  Department  than  M.  Gennaro  Bosco,  Acting 
Public  Prosecutor,  proceeded  to  the  spot  and  held  a  judicial  inquiry 
under  the  usual  conditions,  free  from  all  outside  influences.  This  in- 
quiry showed  that  His  Britannic  Majesty's  Consul  had  been  the 
object  of  a  plot  contrived  by  the  natives,  who,  in  the  hope  of  no  longer 
being  obliged  to  work,  had  agreed  among  themselves  to  represent 
Epondo  as  the  victim  of  the  inhuman  conduct  of  one  of  the  capitas 
of  a  commercial  company.  In  reality,  Epondo  had  been  the  victim 
of  an  accident  while  out  hunting,  and  had  been  bitten  in  the  hand  by 
a  wild  boar;  gangrene  had  set  in  and  caused  the  loss  of  the  member, 
and  this  fact  had  been  cleverly  turned  to  account  by  the  natives  when 
before  the  Consul.  We  append  (Annex  No.  III.)  extracts  from  the  in- 
quiry conducted  by  the  Acting  Public  Prosecutor  into  the  Epondo 
case.  The  evidence  is  typical,  uniform,  and  without  discrepancies. 
It  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  the  cause  of  the  accident,  makes  it  clear  that 
the  natives  lied  to  the  Consul,  and  reveals  the  object  which  actuated 
them,  namely,  the  hope  that  the  Consul's  intervention  would  relieve 
them  from  the  necessity  of  paying  taxes.  The  inquiry  shows  how 
Epondo,  at  last  brought  to  account,  retracted  what  he  had  in  the 
first  instance  said  to  the  Consul,  and  confessed  that  he  had  been  in- 
fluenced by  the  people  of  his  village.     He  was  questioned  as  follows: 

Q.  ' '  Do  you  persist  in  accusing  Kalengo  of  having  cut  off  your  left 
hand?  " 

A.     "  No.     I  told  a  lie." 

Q.     "State,  then,  how  and  when  you  lost  your  hand." 

A.  "I  was  a  slave  of  Monkckola's  at  Malele,  in  the  Bangala  district. 
One  day  I  went  out  boar-hunting  with  him.  He  wounded  one  with 
a  spear,  and  thereupon  the  animal,  enraged,  turned  on  me.  I  tried 
to  run  off  with  the  others,  but  falling  down,  the  boar  was  on  me  in  a 
moment  and  tore  off  my  left  hand  and  [wotmded  me]  in  the  stomach 
and  left  thigh." 

[The  witness  exhibits  the  scars  he  carries  at  the  places  mentioned, 
and  lying  down  of  his  own  accord  shows  the  position  he  was  in  when 
the  boar  attacked  and  wounded  him.] 

Q.     "  How  long  ago  did  this  accident  happen?  " 

A.     "I  don't  remember.     It  was  a  long  time  ago." 

Q.     "Why  did  you  accuse  Kalengo?" 

A.  "Because  Momaketa,  one  of  the  Bossunguma  Chiefs,  told  me 
to,  and  afterwards  all  the  inhabitants  of  my  village  did  so  too." 


59^  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Q.     ' '  Did  the  English  photograph  you  ? ' ' 

A.  "Yes,  at  Bonginda  and  Lulonga.  They  told  me  to  put  the 
stump  well  forward.  There  were  Nenele,  Mongongolo,  Torongo,  and 
other  whites  whose  names  I  don't  know.  They  were  whites  from 
Lulonga.     Mongongolo  took  away  six  photographs."' 

Epondo  of  his  own  accord  repeated  his  declarations  and  retractions 
to  a  Protestant  missionary,  Mr.  Paris,  who  lives  at  Bolengi.  This 
gentleman  has  sent  the  Commissary-General  at  Coquilhatville  the 
following  written  declaration : 

"I,  E.  E.  Paris,  missionary,  residing  at  Bolengi,  Upper  Congo,  de- 
clare that  I  questioned  the  boy  Epondo,  of  the  village  of  Bosongoma, 
who  was  at  my  house  on  the  loth  September,  1903,  with  Mr.  Case- 
ment, the  British  Consul,  and  whom,  in  accordance  with  the  request 
made  to  me  by  Commandant  Stevens,  of  Coquilhatville,  I  took  to  the 
mission  station  at  Bolengi  on  the  i6th  October,  1903;  and  that  the 
said  boy  has  this  day,  the  17th  October,  1903,  told  me  that  he  lost  his 
hand  through  the  bite  of  a  wild  boar. 

"He  told  me  at  the  same  time  that  he  infonned  Mr.  Casement  that 
his  hand  was  cut  off  either  by  a  soldier  or,  perhaps,  by  one  of  those 
working  for  the  white  men  {travailleurs  de  blanc),  who  have  been 
making  war  in  his  village  with  a  view  to  the  collection  of  rubber,  but 
he  asserts  that  the  account  which  he  has  given  me  to-day  is  the  truth. 

"(Signed)  E.  E.  Paris. 

"Bolengi,  October  17,  1903." 

The  inquiry  resulted  in  the  discharge  of  the  prisoner,  which,  so  far 
as  it  concerned  the  Epondo  question,  was  in  the  following  terms: 

"  We,  Acting  Public  Prosecutor  of  the  Court  of  Coquilhatville: 

"  Having  regard  to  the  notes  made  by  His  Britannic  Majesty's  Con- 
sul, on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  the  villages  of  Ikandja  and  Bossun- 
guma  in  the  territory  of  the  Ngombe,  from  which  it  would  appear  that 
a  certain  Kalengo,  a  forest  guard  in  the  ser\-ice  of  the  La  Lulonga 
Company, 

"  (o)     Cut  off  the  left  hand  of  a  certain  Epondo; 

"(ft)     .     -     .     .; 

"W     .     .     .     .; 

"  Having  regard  to  the  inquiry  instituted  by  Lieutenant  Braeck- 
man,  which  partly  confirms  the  restilt  of  the  inquiry  instituted  by  His 
Britannic  Majesty's  Consul,  but  also  partly  contradicts  it,  and  to  the 
charges  already  brought  against  Kalengo  adds  that  of  having  killed  a 
native  of  the  name  of  Baluwa; 

"Having  regard  to  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  the  police  employee 
in  question,  which  tend  to  raise  grave  doubts  as  to  the  truth  of  all 
these  charges; 

»  See  Annex  No.  IIL 


Appendix  599 

"  In  view  of  the  fact  that  all  the  natives  who  brought  these  charges 
against  Kalengo,  whether  before  His  Britannic  Majesty's  Consul  or 
Lieutenant  Braeckman,  on  being  summoned  by  us,  the  Acting  Public 
Prosecutor,  took  to  flight,  and  all  efforts  to  find  them  have  been 
fruitless ;  that  this  flight  obviously  throws  doubt  on  the  truth  of  their 
allegations ; 

"  That  all  the  witnesses  whom  we  have  questioned  during  the  course 
of  our  inquiry  declare  .  .  .  that  Epondo  lost  his  left  hand  from 
the  bite  of  a  wild  boar; 

"  That  Epondo  confirms  these  statements,  and  admits  that  he  told 
a  lie  at  the  instigation  of  the  natives  of  Bossunguma  and  Ikondja 
who  hoped  to  escape  collecting  rubber  through  the  intervention  of 
His  Britannic  Majesty's  Consul,  whom  they  considered  to  be  very 
powerful ; 

"  That  the  witnesses,  almost  all  inhabitants  of  the  accusing  villages, 
admit  that  such  was  the  object  of  their  lie ; 

"  That  this  version,  apart  from  the  unanimous  declaration  of  the  wit- 
nesses and  the  injured  parties,  is  also  the  most  plausible,  seeing  that 
every  one  knows  that  the  natives  dislike  work  in  general  and  having 
to  collect  rubber,  and  are,  moreover,  ready  to  He  and  accuse  people 
falsely ; 

"  That  it  is  confirmed  by  the  clearly  stated  opinion  of  the  English 
missionary  Armstrong,  who  considers  the  natives  to  be  "capable  of 
any  plot  to  escape  work,  and  especially  the  labour  of  collecting  rubber  " ; 

"  That  the  innocence  of  Kalengo  having  been  thoroughly  estab- 
lished, there  is  no  reason  for  proceeding  against  him; 

"  On  the  above-mentioned  grounds,  we,  the  Acting  Public  Prosecu- 
tor, declare  that  there  are  no  grounds  for  proceeding  against  Kalengo,  a 
forest  guard  in  the  service  of  the  La  Lulonga  Company,  for  the  offences 
mentioned  in  Articles  2,  5,  11,  and  19  of  the  Penal  Code. 

"  (Signed)  Bosco, 

"  Acting  Public  Prosecutor. 

"  Mampoko,  October  9,  1903." 

We  have  dealt  at  length  with  the  above  case  because  it  is  considered 
by  the  Consul  himself  as  being  one  of  the  utmost  importance,  and  be- 
cause he  relies  upon  this  single  case  for  accepting  as  accurate  all  the 
other  declarations  made  to  him  by  natives. 

"In  the  one  case  I  could  alone  personally  investigate,"  he  says,* 
"that  of  the  boy  II.,  I  found  this  accusation  proved  on  .the  spot  with- 
out seemingly  a  shadow  of  doubt  existing  as  to  the  guilt  of  the  accused 
sentry." 

And  further  on : 

"I  had  not  time  to  do  more  than  visit  the  one  village  of  R ,  and 

'  Report,  p.  58. 


6oo  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

in  that  village  I  had  only  time  to  investigate  the  charge  brought  by 
II."  ' 

And  elsewhere : 

"It  was  obviously  impossible  that  I  should  .  .  .  verify  on  the 
spot,  as  in  the  case  of  the  boy,  the  statements  they  made.  In  that 
one  case  the  truth  of  the  charges  preferred  was  amply  demonstrated."  ^ 

It  is  also  to  this  case  that  he  alludes  in  his  letter  of  the  12th  Sep- 
tember, 1903,  to  the  Governoi'-General,  where  he  says: 

"When  speaking  to  M.  le  Commandant  Stevens  at  Coquilhatville 
on  the  10th  instant,  when  the  mutilated  boy  Epondo  stood  before  us  as 
an  evidence  of  the  deplorable  state  of  affairs  I  reprobated,  I  said,  'I  do 
not  accuse  an  individual,  I  accuse  a  system.'" 

It  is  only  nattiral  to  conclude  that  if  the  rest  of  the  evidence  in  the 
Consul's  Report  is  of  the  same  value  as  that  furnished  to  him  in  this 
particular,  it  cannot  possibly  be  regarded  as  conclusive.  And  it  is 
obvious  that  in  those  cases  in  which  the  Consul,  as  he  himself  admits, 
did  not  attempt  to  verify  the  assertions  of  the  natives,  these  assertions 
are  worth,  if  possible,  still  less. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  Consul  deliberately  incurred  the  certain 
risk  of  being  misled  owing  to  the  manner  in  which  he  interrogated  the 
natives,  which  he  did,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  through  two  interpreters — 
"through  Vinda,  speaking  in  Bobangi,  and  Bateko,  repeating  his 
utterances  ...  in  the  local  dialect  3 ;  so  that  the  Consul  was  at 
the  mercy  not  only  of  the  truthfulness  of  the  native  who  was  being 
questioned,  but  depended  also  on  the  correctness  of  the  translations 
of  two  other  natives,  one  of  whom  was  a  servant  of  his  own,  and  the 
other  apparently  the  missionaries'  interpreter.4  But  any  one  who  has 
ever  been  in  contact  with  the  native  knows  how  much  he  is  given  to 
lying;  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Harvey  s  states  that: 

"The  natives  of  the  Congo  who  surrounded  us  were  contemptible, 
perfidious,  and  cruel,  impudent  liars,  dishonest,  and  vile." 

It  is  also  important,  if  one  wishes  to  get  a  correct  idea  of  the  value 
of  this  evidence,  to  note  that  while  Mr.  Casement  was  questioning 
the  natives,  he  was  accompanied  by  two  local  Protestant  English  mis- 
sionaries, whose  presence  must  alone  have  necessarily  affected  the 
evidence.  6 

I  Report,  p.  58.  ^  Idem,  p.  56. 

3  See  Annex  No.  II.  (enclosure  No.  6  in  III.). 

4  Regions  Beyond,  1900,  p.  198. 

5  Idem.,  January-February,  1903,  p.  53. 

6  See  Annex  No.  II.  "Present:  Rev.  W.  D.  Armstrong  and  Rev. 
D.  J.  Danielson  of  the  Congo  Balolo  Mission  of  Bonginda,  Vinda 
Bidilou  (Consul's  head  man)  and  Bateko  as  interpreters,  and  His 
Britannic  Majesty's  Consul."  This  passage  is  omitted  in  Annex  No.  6 
of  the  Consul's  Report  (p.  78). 


Appendix  6oi 

We  should  ourselves  be  going  too  far  if  from  all  this  we  were  to  con- 
clude that  the  whole  of  the  native  statements  reported  by  the  Consul 
ought  to  be  rejected.  But  it  is  clearly  shown  that  his  proofs  are  in- 
sufficient as  a  basis  for  a  deliberate  judgment,  and  that  the  particulars 
in  question  require  to  be  carefully  and  impartially  tested. 

On  examining  the  Consul's  voluminous  Report  for  other  cases  which 
he  has  seen,  and  which  he  sets  down  as  cases  of  mutilation,  it  will  be 
observed  that  he  mentions  two  as  having  occurred  on  Lake  Man- 
tumba  '  "some  years  ago."^  He  mentions  several  others,  in  regard 
to  the  number  of  which  the  particulars  given  in  the  Report  do  not 
seem  to  agree, -5  as  having  taken  place  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bon- 
ginda,4  precisely  in  the  country  of  the  Epondo  inquiry,  where,  as  has 
been  seen,  the  general  feeling  was  excited  and  prejudiced.  It  is  these 
cases  which,  he  says,  he  had  not  time  to  inquire  into  fully, s  and  which, 
according  to  the  natives,  were  due  to  agents  of  the  La  Lulonga  Com- 
pany. Were  these  instances  of  victims  of  the  practice  of  native  cus- 
toms which  the  natives  would  have  been  careful  not  to  admit?  Were 
the  injuries  which  the  Consul  saw  due  to  some  conflict  between  neigh- 
bouring villages  or  tribes?  Or  were  they  really  due  to  the  black 
subordinates  of  the  Company?  This  cannot  be  determined  by  a 
perusal  of  the  Report,  as  the  natives  in  this  instance,  as  in  every  other, 
were  the  sole  source  of  the  Consul's  information,  and  he,  for  his  part, 
confined  himself  to  taking  rapid  notes  of  their  numerous  statements 
for  a  few  hours  in  the  morning  of  the  5th  September,  being  pressed 
for  time,  in  order  to  reach  K (Bossunguma)  at  a  reasonable  hour.6 

Notwithstanding  the  weight  which  he  attached  to  the  "air  of 
frankness"  and  the  "air  of  conviction  and  sincerity"/  on  the  part  of 
the  natives,  his  own  experience  shows  clearly  the  necessity  for  caution, 
and  renders  rash  his  assertion  "that  it  was  clear  that  these  men  were 
stating  either  what  they  had  actually  seen  with  their  eyes  or  firmly 
believed  in  their  hearts."  * 

Now,  however,  that  the  Consul  has  drawn  attention  to  these  few 
cases — whether  cases  of  cruelty  or  not,  and  they  are  all  that,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  he  has  inquired  into  personally,  and  even  so  without 
being  able  to  prove  sufficiently  their  real  cause — the  authorities  will 
of  course  look  into  the  matter  and  cause  inquiries  to  be  made.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that,  this  being  so,  all  mention  of  date,  place,  and 
name  has  been  systematically  omitted  in  the  copy  of  the  Report 
communicated  to  the  Government  of  the  Independent  State  of  the 
Congo.  It  is  impossible  not  to  see  that  these  suppressions  will  place 
great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  magistrates   who  will   have  to 

*  Report,  p.  34.  2  Idem,  pp.  76  and  77. 
3Cf.  Idem,  pp.  54  and  55  and  p.  58. 

4  Idem,  pyj.  54,  55.  s  Idem,  p.  56. 

^  Idem,  p.  56.                            7  Idem,  p.  62.  ^  Idem,  p.  57. 


6o2  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

inquire  into  the  facts,  and  the  Government  of  the  Congo  trust  that, 
in  the  interests  of  truth,  they  may  be  placed  in  possession  of  the 
complete  text  of  the  Consul's  Report. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  the  Government  of  the  Congo  State 
take  this  opportunity  of  protesting  against  the  proceedings  of  their 
detractors  who  have  thought  fit  to  submit  to  the  public  reproductions 
of  photographs  of  mutilated  natives,  and  have  started  the  odious  story 
of  hands  being  cut  off  with  the  knowledge  and  even  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  Belgians  in  Africa.  The  photograph  of  Epondo,  for  instance, 
mutilated  in  the  manner  shown,  and  who  has  "twice  been  photo- 
graphed," is  probably  one  of  those  which  the  English  pamphlets  are 
circulating  as  proof  of  the  execrable  administration  of  the  Belgians  in 
Africa.  One  English  review  reproduced  the  photograph  of  a  "  cannibal 
surrounded  with  the  skulls  of  his  victims,"  and  underneath  was 
written:  "In  the  original  photograph  the  cannibal  was  naked.  The 
artist  has  made  him  decent  by  .  .  .  covering  his  breast  with  the 
star  of  the  Congo  State.  It  is  now  a  suggestive  emblem  of  the  Chris- 
tian-veneered cannibalism  on  the  Congo."'  At  this  rate  it  would 
suffice  to  throw  discredit  on  the  Uganda  Administration  if  the  plates 
were  published  illustrating  the  mutilations  which,  in  a  letter  dated 
Uganda,  i6th  December,  1902,  Dr.  Castellani  says  he  saw  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Entebbe  itself:  "It  is  not  difficult  to  find  there 
natives  without  noses  or  ears,  etc."  ^ 

The  truth  is,  that  in  Uganda,  as  in  the  Congo,  the  natives  still  give 
way  to  their  savage  instincts.  This  objection  has  been  anticipated 
by  Mr.  Casement,  who  remarks: 

' '  It  was  not  a  native  custom  prior  to  the  coming  of  the  white  man ; 
it  was  not  the  outcome  of  the  primitive  instincts  of  savages  in  their 
fights  between  village  and  village;  it  was  the  deliberate  act  of  the 
soldiers  of  a  European  Administration,  and  these  men  themselves 
never  made  any  concealment  that  in  committing  these  acts  they  were 
but  obeying  the  positive  orders  of  their  superiors."  3 

That  Mr.  Casement  should  formulate  so  serious  a  charge  without 
at  the  same  time  supporting  it  by  absolute  proof  would  seem  to  justify 
those  who  consider  that  his  previous  employment  has  not  altogether 
been  such  as  to  qualify  him  for  the  duties  of  a  Consul.  Mr.  Casement 
remained  seventeen  days  on  Lake  Mantumba,  a  lake  said  to  be  25  to 
30  miles  long  and  12  to  15  broad,  surroiuided  by  a  dense  forest. 4  He 
scarcely  left  its  shores  at  all.  In  these  circumstances  it  is  difficult  to 
see  how  he  could  have  made  any  useful  researches  into  the  former 
habits  and  customs  of  the  inhabitants.  On  the  contrary,  from  the 
fact  that  the  tribes  in  question  are  still  very  savage,  and  addicted  to 

^  Review  of  Reviews,  February  14,  1903. 

2  The  Tribuna  of  Rome. 

3  Report,  Annex  No.  IV.,  p.  77.  ^  Idem,  p.  30. 


Appendix  603 

cannibalism,*  it  would  seem  that  they  have  not  abandoned  the  prac- 
tice of  those  cruelties  which  throughout  Africa  were  the  usual  accom- 
paniments of  barbarous  habits  and  anthropophagy.  In  one  portion 
of  the  districts  which  the  Constil  visited,  the  evidence  of  the  English 
missionaries  on  this  point  is  most  instructive.  The  Rev.  McKittrick, 
in  describing  the  sanguinary  contests  between  the  natives,  mentions 
the  efforts  to  pacify  the  country  which  he  formerly  made  through  the 
chiefs:  ".  .  .  .  We  told  them  that  for  the  future  we  should  not 
let  any  man  carrying  spears  or  knives  pass  through  our  station.  Our 
God  was  a  God  of  peace,  and  we,  His  children,  could  not  bear  to  see 
(mr  black  brothers  cutting  and  stabbing  each  other."  2  "While  I  was 
jjoing  up  and  down  the  river,"  says  another  missionarj',  "they  pointed 
out  to  me  the  King's  beaches,  whence  they  used  to  despatch  their 
lighting  men  to  capture  canoes  and  men.  It  was  heartrending  to 
hear  them  describe  the  awful  massacres  that  used  to  take  place  at  a 
great  chief's  death.  A  deep  hole  was  dug  in  the  ground,  into  which 
scores  of  slaves  were  thrown  after  having  their  heads  cut  off ;  and  upon 
that  horrible  pile  they  laid  the  chief's  dead  body  to  crown  the  inde- 
scribable human  carnage."  3  And  the  missionaries  speak  of  the 
facility  with  which  even  nowadays  the  natives  return  to  their  old 
customs.  It  would  seem,  too,  the  statement  made  in  the  Report, 4 
that  the  natives  now  fly  on  the  approach  of  a  steamer  as  they  never 
used  to  do,  is  hardly  in  accordance  with  the  reports  of  travellers  and 
explorers. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  nowhere  in  the  territory 
which  is  the  scene  of  the  operations  of  the  A.  B.  I.  R.  Company  did  the 
Consul  discover  any  evidence  of  acts  of  cruelty  for  which  the  commer- 
cial agents  might  have  been  considered  responsible.  The  coincidence 
is  remarkable,  since  it  so  happens  that  the  A.  B.  I.  R.  Company  is  a 
concessionary  company,  and  that  it  is  the  system  of  concessions  to 
which  are  constantly  attributed  the  most  disastrous  consequences 
for  the  natives. 

What  it  is  important  to  discover  from  the  immense  number  of 
questions  touched  on  by  the  Consul,  and  the  multiplicity  of  minor 
facts  which  he  has  collected,  is  whether  the  sort  of  picture  he  has 
drawn  of  the  wretched  existence  led  by  the  natives  corresponds  to 
the  actual  state  of  affairs.  We  will  take,  for  instance,  the  district 
of  the  Lulonga  and  the  Lopori,  as  the  head-stations  of  the  missions 
of  the  Congo  Balolo  Mission  have  been  established  there  for 
years  past.  These  missions  are  established  in  the  most  distant  places 
^Report.  Annex  No.  IV.,  p.  30. 

2  "Ten  Years  at  Bonginda."     D.  McKittrick,  Regions  Beyond,  1900, 
p.  21. 

3  "Congo  Contrasts."     M.  Boudot,  Regions  Beyond,  1900,  p.  197. 

4  Report,  p.  34. 


6o4  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

in  the  interior,  at  Lulonga,  Bonginda,  Ikau,  Bongandanga,  and 
Baringa,  all  of  which  are  situated  in  the  scene  of  operations  of  the  La 
Lulonga  and  A.  B.  L  R.  Companies.  They  are  in  constant  com- 
munication with  the  native  populations,  and  a  special  monthly  review, 
called  Regions  Beyond,  regularly  publishes  their  letters,  notes,  and 
reports.  An  examination  of  a  set  of  these  publications  reveals  no 
trace,  at  any  time  previous  to  April,  1903 — by  that  date,  it  is  true, 
Mr.  Herbert  Samuel's  motion  had  been  brought  before  Parliament — - 
of  anything  either  to  point  out  or  to  reveal  that  the  general  situation 
of  the  native  populations  was  such  as  ought  to  be  denounced  to  the 
civilised  world.  The  missionaries  congratulate  themselves  on  the 
active  sympathy  shown  them  by  the  various  official  and  commercial 
agents,'  on  the  progress  of  their  work  of  evangelisation,^  on  the  facili- 
ties afforded  them  by  the  construction  of  roads, ^  on  the  manner  in 
which  the  natives  are  becoming  civilised,  "owing  to  the  mere  presence 
of  white  men  in  their  midst,  both  missionaries  and  traders,"  4  on  the 
disappearance  of  slavery, s  on  the  density  of  the  population ,6  on  the 
growing  number  of  their  pupils,  "especially  since  the  State  has  issued 
orders  for  all  children  within  reach  to  attend  the  mission  schools,"  7 
on  the  gradual  disappearance  of  the  primitive  customs  of  the  natives,^ 
and  lastly,  on  the  contrast  between  the  present  and  the  past.^  Will 
it  be  admitted  that  these  Christian  English  missionaries,  who,  during 
their  journeys,  visited  the  various  factories,  and  witnessed  markets 
of  rubber  being  held,  would,  by  keeping  silence,  make  themselves 
the  accomplices  of  an  inhuman  or  wrongful  system  of  government? 
Among  the  conclusions  of  one  of  the  Annual  Reports  of  the.  Congo 
Balolo  Mission  is  to  be  found  the  following:  "On  the  whole,  the  re- 
trospect is  encouraging.  If  there  has  been  no  great  advance,  there 
has  been  no  heavy  falling  off,  and  no  definite  opposition  to  the  work. 
.  There  has  been  much  famine  and  sickness  among  the 
natives,  especially  at  Bonginda.  .  .  .  Apart  from  this,  there  has 
been  no  serious  hindrance  to  progress.  .  .  ."'°  And  speaking  in- 
cidentally of  the  beneficial  effect  produced  by  work  on  the  social  cond- 
tion  of  the  natives,  a  missionary  writes:  "The  greatest  obstacle  to 
conversion  is  polygamy.  Many  evils  have  been  put  down,  e.  g.,  idle- 
ness, thanks  to  the  State  having  compelled  the  men  to  work;  and 
fighting,  through  their  not  having  time  enough  to  fight."  "  These 
opinions  of  missionaries  appear  to  us  to  be  more  precise  than  those 
expressed  in  a  Report  on  every  page  of  which  it  may  be  said  one  finds 
such  expressions  as:    "I  was  told,"  "it  was  said,"  "I  was  informed," 

^  Regions  Beyond,  1900,  p.  150;    1902,  p.  209. 
^  Idem,  passim.  ^  Idem,  1900,  p.  150.         *  Idem,,  1901,  p.  27. 

5  Idem,  1900,  p.  199.  ^  Idem,  1900,  pp.  243,  297,  306. 

7  Idem,  1901,  p.  40;   1902.  p.  315.  ^  Idem,  1901,  p.  40. 

9  Idem.,  1900,  p.  196.     ^°  Idem,  loor,  p.  43.      ^^  Idem,  1901,  p.  60. 


Appendix  605 

"I  was  assured,"  "they  said,"  "it  was  alleged,"  "I  had  no  means  of 
verifying,"  "it  was  impossible  for  me  to  verify,"  "I  have  no  means  of 
ascertaining,"  etc.  Within  a  space  of  ten  lines,  indeed,  occur  four 
times  the  expressions,  "appears,"  "would  seem,"  "do  not  seem."  ' 

The  Consul  does  not  appear  to  have  realised  that  native  taxes  in 
the  Congo  are  levied  in  the  shape  of  labour,  and  that  this  form  of  tax 
is  justified  as  much  by  the  moral  effect  which  it  produces,  as  by  the 
impossibility  of  taxing  the  native  in  any  other  way,  seeing  that,  as 
the  Consul  admits,  the  native  has  no  money.  It  is  to  this  consideration 
that  is  due  the  fact,  to  give  another  example,  that  out  of  56,700  huts 
which  are  taxed  in  North-Eastern  Rhodesia  19,653  pay  that  tax  "in 
labour,"  while  4938  pay  it  "in  produce."  ^  Whether  such  labour  is 
furnished  direct  to  the  State  or  to  some  private  undertaking,  and 
whether  it  is  given  in  aid  of  this  or  that  work  as  local  necessities  may 
dictate,  one  ground  of  justification  is  always  to  be  found  in  what  the 
Memorandum  of  the  nth  February  last  recognises  is  the  "necessity 
of  the  natives  being  induced  to  work."  The  Consul  shows  much 
anxiety  as  to  how  this  forced  labour  should  be  described;  he  is  sur- 
prised that  if  it  be  a  tax  it  is  sometimes  paid  and  recovered  by  com- 
mercial agents.  Strictly  speaking,  of  course,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  idea  of  remunerating  a  person  for  paying  his  taxes  is  contrary 
to  the  ordinary  notions  of  finance;  but  the  difficulty  disappears  if  it 
is  considered  that  the  object  in  view  has  been  to  get  the  natives 
to  acquire  the  habit  of  labour,  for  which  they  have  always  shown  a 
great  aversion.  And  if  this  notion  of  work  can  more  easily  be  incul- 
cated on  the  natives  under  the  form  of  commercial  transactions  be- 
tween them  and  private  persons,  is  it  necessary  to  condemn  such  a 
mode  of  procedure,  especially  in  those  parts  where  the  organisation 
of  the  Administration  is  not  yet  complete?  But  it  is  essential  that  in 
the  relations  of  this  nature  which  they  have  with  the  natives,  com- 
mercial agents,  no  less  than  those  of  the  State,  should  be  kind  and 
humane.  In  so  far  as  it  bears  on  this  point  the  Consul's  Report  will 
receive  the  most  careful  consideration,  and  if  the  result  of  investigation 
be  to  show  that  there  are  real  aVjuses  and  that  reforms  are  called  for,  the 
heads  of  the  Administration  will  act  as  the  circumstances  may  require. 

But  no  one  has  ever  imagined  that  the  fiscal  system  in  the  Congo 
attained  perfection  at  once,  especially  in  regard  to  such  matters  as 
the  assessment  of  taxes  and  the  means  for  recovering  them.  The 
system  of  "chieftaincies,"  which  is  recommended  by  the  fact  that  it 
enables  the  authorities  and  the  native  to  communicate  through  the 
latter's  natural  chief,  was  based  on  an  idea  carried  into  practice 
elsewhere : 

"The  more  important  Chiefs  who  helped  the  Administration  have 

'  Report,  p.  28. 

'Reports  on  the  Administration  0}  Rhodesia,  1900-1902,  p.  408. 


6o6  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

been  paid  a  certain  percentage  of  the  taxes  collected  in  their  districts, 
and  I  think  that  if  this  policy  is  adhered  to  each  year,  the  results  will 
continue  to  be  satisfactory  and  will  encourage  the  Chiefs  to  work  in 
harmony  with  the  Administration."  ' 

The  Decree  on  the  subject  of  these  Chieftaincies  -  laid  down  the 
principle  of  a  tax,  and  its  levy  in  accordance  with  "a  table  of  contribu- 
tions to  be  made  every  year  by  each  village  in  produce,  forced  labour, 
labourers,  or  soldiers."  The  application  of  this  Decree  has  been  pro- 
vided for  by  deeds  of  investiture,  tables  of  statistics,  and  particulars 
of  contributions,  forms  of  which  will  be  found  in  Annex  IV.  In  spite 
of  what  is  stated  in  the  Report,  this  Decree  has  been  carried  out  so  far 
as  has  been  found  compatible  with  the  social  condition  of  the  various 
tribes;  numerous  deeds  of  investiture  have  been  drawn  up,  and 
efforts  have  been  made  to  draw  up  an  equitable  assessment  of  the 
contributions.  The  Consul  might  have  found  this  out  at  the  Com- 
missioners' offices,  especially  in  the  Stanley  Pool  and  Equator  districts 
which  he  passed  through ;  but  he  neglected  as  a  rule  all  official  sources 
of  information.  No  doubt  the  application  of  the  Decree  was  at  first 
necessarily  limited,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  result  has  been  that  for 
a  certain  time  only  such  villages  as  were  within  a  short  distance  from 
stations  have  been  required  to  pay  taxes;  but  this  state  of  things  has 
little  by  little  altered  for  the  better  in  proportion  as  the  more  distant 
regions  have  become  included  in  the  areas  of  influence  of  the  Govern- 
ment posts,  the  niunber  of  villages  subject  to  taxation  has  gradually 
increased,  and  it  has  been  found  possible  to  levy  taxes  on  a  greater 
number  of  persons.  The  Government  aim  at  making  progress  in 
this  direction  continuous,  that  is  to  say,  that  taxation  should  be 
more  eqviitably  distributed,  and  should  as  much  as  possible  be 
personal  ;  it  was  with  this  object  that  the  Decree  of  the  i8th  No- 
vember, 1903,  provided  for  drawing  up  "lists  of  native  contributions" 
in  such  a  way  that  the  obligations  of  every  native  should  be  strictly 
defined. 

"Article  28  of  this  Decree  lays  down  that  within  the  limits  of  Article 
2  of  the  present  regulations  (that  is  to  say,  within  the  limit  of  forty 
hours'  work  per  month  per  native)  the  District  Commissioners  shall 
draw  up  annual  lists  of  the  taxes  to  be  paid,  in  kind  or  duration  of 
labour,  by  each  of  the  natives  resident  in  the  territories  of  their  re- 
spective districts.  And  Article  55  punishes  'whoever,  being  charged 
with  the  levy  of  taxes,  shall  have  required  of  the  natives,  whether  in 
kind  or  labour,  contributions  which  shall  exceed  in  value  those  pre- 
scribed in  the  tables  of  taxes. ' ' ' 

It  is  matter  of  common  notoriety  that  the  collection  of  taxes  is 
occasionally  met  by  opposition,  and  even  refusal  to  pay.     The  proofs 

^  Reports  on  the  Administrntion  of  Rhodesia,  1Q00-1902,  p.  408. 
2  Decree  of  the  6th  October,  1891  {Bulletin  Officiel,  1891,  p.  259). 


Appendix  607 

of  this,  which  are  to  be  fotind  in  the  Report  of  the  Consul  for  the 
Congo,  are  borne  out  by  what  has  happened,  for  instance,  in  Rhodesia: 

"The  Ba-Unga  (Awemba  district),  inhabitants  of  the  swamps  in 
the  Zambesi  delta,  gave  some  trouble  on  being  summoned  to  pay 
taxes."  ^ 

"Although  in  many  cases  whole  villages  retired  into  the  swamps  on 
being  called  upon  for  the  hut-tax,  the  general  result  was  satisfactory 
for  the  first  year  (Luapula  district)."  ^ 

"Milala's  people  have  succeeded  in  evading  taxes."  3 

"A  few  natives  bordering  on  the  Portuguese  territory,  who,  owing 
to  the  great  distance  they  reside  from  the  native  Commissioners' 
Stations,  are  not  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  Native  Com- 
missioners, have  so  far  evaded  paying  hut-tax,  and  refused  to  submit 
themselves  to  the  authority  of  the  Government.  The  rebel  Chief, 
Mapondera,  has  upon  three  occasions  successfully  eluded  punitive  expe- 
ditions sent  against  him.  Captain  Gilson,  of  the  British  South  Africa 
Police,  was  successful  in  coming  upon  him  and  a  large  following  of 
natives,  and  inflicting  heavy  losses  upon  them.  His  kraal  and  all  his 
crops  were  destroyed.  He  is  now  reported  to  be  in  Portuguese  terri- 
tory. Siji  M'Kota,  another  powerful  Chief,  living  in  the  northern 
parts  of  the  M'toko  district,  bordering  on  Portuguese  territory,  has 
also  been  successful  in  evading  the  payment  of  hut -tax,  and  generally 
pursuing  the  adoption  of  an  attitude  which  is  not  acceptable  to  the 
Government.  I  am  pleased  to  report  that  a  patrol  is  at  present  on 
its  way  to  these  parts  to  deal  with  this  Chief,  and  to  endeavour  to 
obtain  his  submission.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  above  remarks  relate 
solely  to  those  natives  who  reside  along  the  borders  of  our  territories, 
and  whose  defiant  attitude  is  materially  assisted  by  reason  of  this 
proximity  to  the  Portuguese  border,  across  which  they  are  well  able 
to  proceed  whenever  they  consider  that  any  meeting  or  contact  with 
the  Native  Commissioner  will  interfere  in  any  way  with  their  indolent 
and  lazy  life.  They  possess  no  movable  property  which  might  be 
attached  with  a  view  of  the  recovery  of  hut-tax  unpaid  for  many 
years,  and  travel  backwards  and  forwards  with  considerable  freedom, 
always  placing  themselves  totally  beyond  the  reach  of  the  Native 
Commissioner."  ■* 

The  above  is  an  instance  of  those  "punitive  expeditions"  to  which 
the  authorities  are  occasionally  obliged  to  resort,  as  also  of  the  native 
custom,  which  is  not  peculiar  to  the  natives  of  the  Congo,  of  moving 
into  a  neighbouring  territory  when  they  are  seeking  to  evade  the 
operation  of  the  law.  Whether  in  the  process  of  collecting  native  taxes 
there  have  been  cases  in  the  Congo,  amongst  those  mentioned  by  the 

'  Reports  on  the  Administration  of  Rhodesia,  1900-1902,  p.  409. 
*  Idem,  p.  410.  3  Idem,  p.  410. 

'^  Idem,  1900-1902,  pp.  145,  146. 


6o8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Consul,  in  which  the  limits  of  a  just  and  reasonable  severity  have  been 
overstepped  is  a  question  of  fact  which  investigation  on  the  spot  can 
alone  ascertain,  and  instructions  to  this  effect  will  be  given  to  the 
authorities  at  Boma. 

We  are  also  unable  to  accept,  on  the  information  at  present  before 
us,  the  conclusions  of  the  Report  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the 
forest  guards  in  the  employ  of  the  A.  B.  I.  R.  and  La  Lulonga  Com- 
panies. These  subordinate  officers  are  represented  by  the  Consul  as 
being  exclusively  employed  in  "compelling  by  force  the  collection  of 
india-rubber  or  the  supplies  which  each  factory  needed. "  '  It  is  true 
that  another  explanation  has  been  given — though  not,  indeed,  by  a 
native — according  to  which  the  business  of  these  same  forest  guards 
is  to  see  that  the  india-rubber  is  harvested  after  a  reasonable  fashion, 
and  especially  to  prevent  the  natives  from  cutting  the  plants.-  It  is, 
indeed,  well  known  that  the  law  has  made  rigorous  provision  for  pre- 
serving the  rubber  zones,  has  regulated  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
to  be  worked,  and  has  made  planting  and  replanting  obligatory,  with  a 
view  to  avoiding  the  complete  exhaustion  of  the  rubber  plant,  which 
has  occvured,  for  instance,  in  North-Eastem  and  Western  Rhodesia. 3 
A  heavy  responsibility  in  this  direction  lies  on  the  companies  and 
private  persons  engaged  in  developing  the  country,  and  it  is  obvious 
that  they  are  bound  to  exercise  the  most  careful  superintendence  over 
the  way  in  which  the  harvest  is  collected.  The  object  for  which  these 
forest  guards  are  employed,  therefore,  may  well  be  quite  different 
from  that  alleged  by  the  Consul;  in  any  case,  the  complaints  which 
have  been  made  on  this  head  will  form  a  subject  for  inquiry  in  the 
Congo,  as  also  the  other  remark  of  the  Report  that  the  manner  in 
which  these  forest  guards  are  armed  is  excessive,  and  liable  to  abuse. 
It  is  here  to  be  observed  that  in  calculating  the  number  of  these  forest 
giiards  the  Consul  is  obliged  to  rely  on  hypothesis,^  and  that  he  him- 
self admits  "I  have  no  means  of  ascertaining  the  number  of  this 
class  of  armed  men  employed  by  the  A.  B.  I.  R.  Company."  5  He 
mentions  that  the  gun  of  one  of  these  men  was  marked  on  the  butt 
"Depot  2  2IO."  But  it  is  evident  that  such  a  mark  can  only  have  the 
significance  which  the  Consul  would  like  to  see  in  it  in  so  far  as  it  can 
be  proved  that  it  refers  to  the  numbering  of  the  arms  used  in  the  Con- 
cession, and  such  is  not  the  case,  since  this  particular  mark  "Depot" 
is  not  used  either  by  the  officials  of  the  State  or  those  of  the  Company, 
and  it  would  seem  that  it  is  an  old  manufactory  or  store  mark.  In 
regard  to  the  manner  of  arming  the  capitas,  the  Consul  can  hardly  be 
ignorant  that  the  higher  authorities  have  always  given  great  attention 
to  the  matter,   which   is,   indeed,   one   surrounded  with   difficulties, 

'  Report,  p.  44.  ^  Annex  III.,  p.  26. 

3  Reports  on  the  Administration  of  Rhodesia,  1900-1902,  pp.  397,  etc. 

4  Report,  p.  57.  s  Idem,  p.  42. 


Appendix  609 

seeing  that  while  on  the  one  hand  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  ques- 
tion of  the  personal  protection  of  the  capita,  on  the  other  the  possi- 
bility of  the  arms  in  question  being  used  for  improper  purposes  must 
not  be  lost  sight  of.  It  is  not  only  in  the  Circular  of  the  20th  October, 
1900,  which  the  Consul  has  reprinted,  that  this  question  is  dealt  with; 
there  is  a  whole  collection  of  Circulars  on  the  subject,  among  which 
may  be  mentioned  those  of  the  12th  March,  1897,  31st  May  and  28th 
November,  1900,  and  30th  April,  1901.  Copies  of  them  are  annexed 
as  proof  of  the  fixed  determination  of  the  Government  to  see  that  the 
law  relating  to  this  question  is  strictly  enforced  (Annex  V.).  Yet,  in 
spite  of  all  these  precautions,  the  Consul  has  ascertained  that  several 
capitas  were  not  provided  with  permits  (perhaps  they  might  have 
been  found  at  the  head  office),  and  that  two  of  them  were  furnished 
with  arms  of  precision. ^  But  these  few  infractions  of  the  rule  are 
obviously  not  enough  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  sort  of  vast  armed 
organisation  destined  to  strike  terror  into  the  natives.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  Circular  of  the  7th  September,  1903,  printed  in  Annex  VII. 
of  the  Consul's  Report,  is  a  proof  of  the  care  taken  by  the  Government 
that  the  regular  black  troops  should  always  be  under  the  control  of 
European  officers.  ^ 

Such  are  the  preliminary  remarks  suggested  by  Mr.  Casement's 
Report,  and  we  reserve  to  ourselves  the  right  of  dealing  with  it  more 
in  detail  as  soon  as  the  Government  shall  be  in  possession  of  the 
results  of  the  inquiry  which  the  local  authorities  are  about  to  make. 
It  will  be  observed  that  the  Government,  in  its  desire  not  to  seem  to 
wish  to  avoid  the  discussion,  has  not  raised  a  question  in  regard  to 
the  manner,  surely  unusual,  in  which  His  Britannic  Majesty's  Consul 
has  acted  in  a  foreign  country.  It  is  obviously  altogether  outside  the 
duties  of  a  Consul  to  take  upon  himself,  as  Mr.  Casement  has  done, 
to  institute  inquiries,  to  summon  natives,  to  submit  them  to  interro- 
gatories as  if  duly  authorised  thereto,  and  to  deliver  what  may  be 
styled  judgments  in  regard  to  the  guilt  of  the  accused.  The  reserva- 
tions called  for  by  this  mode  of  procedure  must  be  all  the  more  formal, 
as  the  Consul  was  thus  intervening  in  matters  which  only  concerned 
subjects  of  the  Congo  State,  and  which  were  within  the  exclusive 
jurisdiction  of  the  territorial  authorities.  Mr.  Casement,  indeed,, 
made  it  his  business  himself  to  point  out  how  little  authorised  he  was 
to  interfere  when  on  the  4th  September,  1903,  he  wrote  to  the  Gov- 
ernor-General:   "I  have  no  right  of  representation  to  your  Excellency 

^  Report,  p.  43. 

2 The  Circular  of  the  7th  September,  1903,  has  reference  to  the 
"  prohibition  "  to  despatch  armed  soldiers  in  charge  of  black  non-com- 
missioned officers,  and  not,  as  would  appear  from  the  incorrect  copy 
produced  by  the  Consul,  to  the  "instruction." — (Annex  VII.  of  the 
Report,  p.  80.) 


6io         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

save  where  the  persons  or  interests  of  British  subjects  dwelling  in  this 
country  are  aflfected."  It  is  thus  obvious  that  he  was  aware  that  he 
was  exceeding  his  duties  by  investigating  facts  which  concerned  only 
the  internal  administration,  and  so,  contrary  to  all  laws  of  Consular 
jurisdiction,  encroaching  on  the  province  of  the  territorial  authorities. 

"The  grievances  of  the   natives  have  been  made  known  in  this 

country  by ,  who  brought  over  a  petition  addressed  to  the  King, 

praying  for  rehef  from  the  excessive  taxation  and  oppressive  legisla- 
tion of  which  they  complain." 

These  lines  are  extracted  from  the  Report  for  1903  of  the  British 
and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and  the  natives  referred  to  are  the 
natives  of  the  Fiji  Isles.     The  Report  goes  on : 

"The  case  has  been  brought  before  the  House  of  Commons.  The 
grievances  include  forced  labour  on  the  roads,  and  restrictions  which 
practically  amount  to  slavery;  natives  have  been  flogged  without 
trial  by  magistrate's  orders,  and  are  constantly  subject  to  imprison- 
ment for  frivolous  causes.  Petitions  lodged  with  the  local  Colonial 
Secretary  have  been  disregarded.  Mr.  Chamberlain,  in  reply  to  the 
questions  asked  in  Parliament,  threw  doubt  upon  the  information 
received,  but  stated  that  the  recentl}^  appointed  Governor  is  con- 
ducting an  inquiry  into  the  whole  situation  in  the  Fiji  Islands,  in  the 
course  of  which  the  matter  will  be  fully  investigated." 

Such  are  also  our  conclusions  in  regard  to  Mr.  Casement's  Report. 

Chr.  de  Cuvelier. 

Brussels,  March  12,  1904. 

Memorandi{'m 

Lord  Lansdowne's  dispatch  of  the  19th  April,  1904,  a  copy  of 
which  was  handed  to  the  Congo  Government  on  the  27th  April  by  his 
Excellency  Sir  Constantine  Phipps,  calls  for  certain  remarks. 

With  regard  to  the  opinion  to  which  this  dispatch  takes  exception, 
"that  the  interests  of  humanity  have  been  used  in  this  country  as  a 
pretext  to  conceal  designs  for  the  abolition  of  the  Congo  State,"  it 
will  be  well  to  remember  that  a  Member  of  the  House  of  Commons 
declared  that  he  would  prefer  "to  see  the  Valley  of  the  Congo  pass  into 
the  hands  of  a  foreign  Power,"  and  that  some  pamphlets  described 
the  "disruption  of  the  Congo  Free  State,"  the  "partition  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  among  the  Powers,"  as  absolute  and  immediate 
necessities,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  suggest  the  bases  of  such  a 
partition ;  while  the  organs  of  the  English  press  contemplated  one  of 
two  alternatives,  either  that  "advocated  by  the  more  thorough-going 
critics  of  the  present  Administration,  namely,  the  disruption  of  the 
Congo  Free  State,"  or  "the  partition  of  the  Congo  territory  among 
the  great  Powers  whose  possessions  in  Africa  border  those  of  the 
Congo  Free  State,"  or  declared  that  "what  Europe  ought  to  do,  under 


Appendix  6ii 

the  leadership  of  Great  Britain,  is  summarily  to  sweep  the  Congo  Free 
State  out  of  existence."  The  Congo  State  Note  of  the  17th  Septem- 
ber has  called  attention  to  these  suggestions,  of  which  we  merely 
point  out  the  tenor  in  this  instance,  and  which  all  aimed  at  despoiUng 
the  Sovereign- King,  and  at  dispossessing  him  of  the  State  which  was 
his  own  creation — suggestions  which  are  entirely  incompatible  with 
respect  for  rights  and  treaties,  and  with  the  motives  of  a  purely  hu- 
manitarian and  philanthropic  nature  by  which  the  enemies  of  the 
State  allege  themselves  to  be  exclusively  animated  in  the  passionate 
campaign  which  they  are  conducting  against  it. 

In  reply  to  the  objections  raised  by  His  Majesty's  Government 
against  the  communication  of  the  entire  text  of  Mr.  Casement's  Re- 
port, the  Government  of  the  Congo  State  points  out  that  it  has  asked 
for  the  complete  Report  precisely  with  a  view  to  transmitting  it  to 
the  competent  judicial  and  administrative  authorities,  without  which 
this  communication  would  be  purportless.  The  anxiety  to  obtain  an 
impartial  inquiry  and  the  rights  of  the  defence  render  it  an  imperative 
necessity  that  the  men  accused  should  be  informed,  in  a  precise  and 
fully  detailed  manner,  of  the  acts  laid  to  their  charge;  the  fear  that 
the  persons  accused  might  be  able,  by  means  of  the  knowledge  they 
would  have  of  the  details,  to  influence  or  suppress  evidence,  does  not 
appear  to  be  justified  by  the  mere  fact  that  the  natives,  who,  in  the 
Epondo  case,  had  given  mendacious  information  to  the  Consul,  sub- 
sequently avoided  presenting  themselves  before  the  Magistrate  pre- 
siding over  the  inquiry;  the  flight  of  these  witnesses  is  explained 
more  naturally  by  the  fact  that  they  were  conscious  of  the  grave 
fault  they  had  committed  in  wittingly  deceiving  the  English  Consul. 
If  the  Congo  Government  be  permitted  to  give  an  assurance,  which  it 
does  willingly,  that  any  case  of  suborning  witnesses,  or  any  attempt  to 
do  so,  would  form  the  subject  of  a  prosecution,  it  is  evidently  not 
within  its  power  to  prejudice  or  quash  such  legal  measures  as  per- 
sons who  might  find  themselves  wrongfully  accused  might  consider 
it  necessary  to  take,  either  in  the  interests  of  their  honour  or  their 
dignity. 

The  Government  of  the  Congo  State  regrets  that  His  Majesty's 
Government  does  not  deem  it  necessary  to  communicate  to  it  the 
other  previous  Consular  Reports  to  which  Lord  Lansdowne's  dispatch 
of  the  8th  August,  1903,  alluded.  As  was  stated  in  the  notes  of  the 
12th  March  last,  these  reports  possessed  the  interest  of  having  been 
written  at  a  date  anterior  to  the  inception  of  the  present  discussion. 

A  copy  of  this  Memorandum  will  be  addressed  to  the  Powers  to 
whom  copies  of  Lord  Lansdowne's  dispatch  of  the  19th  April  last 
was  transmitted. 

Administration,  Congo  Free  State,  Brussels, 
May  14,  1904. 


6i2         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

FEATURES  OF  THE  LAND  SYSTEM  IN  THE  AFRI- 
CAN COLONIES  OF  GERMANY,  GREAT  BRITAIN. 
FRANCE,  AND  PORTUGAL 

The  foUo^v'ing  notes  are  taken  from  the  Bulletin  Ofjiciel  of  June, 
1903,  reporting  to  the  Sovereign  the  accounts  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
for  the  nineteenth  year  of  its  existence.  The  apt  comparisons  and 
pointed  remarks  upon  the  land  system  of  the  State  are  the  work  of  M. 
le  Chevalier  de  Cuvelier,  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Congo  Free  State, 
an  official  of  great  executive  ability,  to  whose  tremendous  energy  is 
due  much  of  the  later  prosperity  and  progress  which  the  Congo  State 
enjoys  to  the  chagrin  of  its  detractors.  Chevalier  de  Cuvelier  has  been 
engaged  twenty  years  in  the  work  of  creating  and  developing  the  State. 
His  official  utterances  have  the  quality  of  long  experience  behind 
them. 

"During  the  twenty  years  that  the  rule  of  the  State  possession  of 
vacant  lands  has  been  inscribed  in  the  laws  of  the  Congo  State,  not 
one  of  the  Powers  Signatory  of  the  Berlin  Act  has  pointed  it  out  as 
being  contrary  to  that  International  Act,  either  at  the  time  of  the 
publication  in  the  Official  Bulletin  of  the  regulation  of  1885,  or  on  the 
occasion  of  any  of  the  public  applications  made  by  the  State  on  suc- 
cessive occasions  either  in  exploiting  en  regie  certain  lands  of  the 
Domain  with  the  object  of  assuring  to  the  Treasury  indispensable  re- 
sources, or  in  granting  concessions  to  certain  societies  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  out  works  of  general  utility  and  contributing  towards  the 
public  expenses. 

"It  can  be  said  on  the  contrary  that  the  Powers  which,  together 
with  the  Congo  State,  are  in  possession  of  territory  in  the  zone  of  com- 
mercial liberty — France,  Germany,  Great  Britain,  Portugal — have 
followed  the  same  principles,  and  considered,  like  it,  that  the  Berlin 
Act  no  more  excluded  the  right  of  property  on  the  part  of  the  State 
than  it  excluded  that  of  private  individuals. 

"In  German  East  Africa  the  regulation  of  ist  September,  1891, 
says: 

"  '  Article  i. — The  Government  alone  has  the  right  to  take  posses- 
sion of  vacant  lands  in  the  limits  of  the  German  sphere  of  influence  in 
East  Africa  fixed  by  the  Anglo-German  Convention  of  ist  July,  1890, 
excepting  for  the  length  of  the  coast  strip  which  was  formerly  part 
of  the  Zanzibar  sultanate,  and  in  the  provinces  of  Usambara,  Nguru, 
Usegua,  Ukami,  and  the  island  of  Mafia.' 

"By  the  prior  arrangement  of  20th  November,  1890,  between  the 
Imperial  Government  and  the  Deutsch  Ostafrikanische  Gesellschaft,  the 
vacant  lands  of  these  latter  regions  were  already  fotmd  to  be  assigned 


Appendix  613 

to  that  Company.  The  produce  of  the  exploitation  of  the  forests 
throughout  these  territories,  in  the  terms  of  Article  4  of  the  contract 
of  5th  February,  1894,  was  to  be  shared  in  equal  halves  between  the 
[German]  Government  and  the  Company. 

"The  [German]  regulation  of  the  26th  November,  1895,  readmits 
the  principle : 

"'Article  i. — Under  reserve  of  the  rights  of  property,  or  of  other 
real  rights  that  individuals  or  judicial  persons,  native  chiefs  or  vil- 
lages, may  advance,  as  well  as  rights  of  occupation  by  third  parties  re- 
sulting from  contracts  effected  with  the  Imperial  Government,  all 
vacant  land  in  German  East  Africa  belongs  to  the  Crown.' 

"The  circular  of  the  Imperial  Governor  von  Liebert,  dated  29th 
April,  1900,  explains  that: 

"'By  the  transference  to  the  Empire  of  the  sovereignty,  all  preten- 
sions to  landed  property  derived  from  the  sovereign  rights,  real  or 
apparent,  of  chiefs,  sultans,  etc.,  have  passed  to  the  Empire.  All 
land  which  has  not  been  proved  to  be  the  private  property  of  an  indi- 
vidual, or  of  a  community,  is  to  be  considered  as  the  property  of  the 
Crown.' 

"Under  the  powers  of  the  regulations  of  1895,  concessions  have  been 
granted  in  the  terms  taken,  for  example,  from  the  acts  of  the  con- 
cession for  the  Urangi  Society  (1896)  and  the  Gold  Syndicate  of 
Usinja  (1899) : 

' ' '  The  Society  receives  the  right  to  acquire  under  the  prescriptions 
of  the  land  regulation  of  26th  November,  1895,  a  superficies  of  100 
square  kilometres,  either  by  contract  with  the  natives,  or  by  taking 
provisional  possession  of  vacant  lands.' 

"In  the  Cameroons,  the  south-east  portion  of  which  forms  part  of 
the  zone  of  liberty  of  commerce,  there  exists  a  regulation  of  the  German 
Emperor  of  15th  June,  1896,  the  first  article  of  which  is  identical  with 
the  first  article  of  the  regulation  of  26th  November,  1895,  for  German 
East  Africa. 

"The  Society  of  the  South  Cameroons  has  obtained  there,  i6th 
January,  1899,  a  charter  of  concession  which  grants  it  the  property  of 
the  domain  lands  situated  between  the  12th  degree  of  West  longitude, 
the  4th  degree  of  North  latitude,  and  the  political  frontiers  of  the 
Cameroons  to  the  South  and  to  the  East. 

"In  the  French  Congo,  Article  19  of  the  order  of  the  Government 
Commissioner  General  of  26th  September,  1891,  decrees: 

"'Waste  lands  and  abandoned  lands,  to  the  ownership  of  which 
no  one  can  legitimately  lay  claim,  will  be  considered  as  belonging  to  the 
State  and  will  form  part  of  the  colonial  domain.  They  can  under  that 
head  be  alienated  or  conceded  in  the  terms  of  the  5th  and  follou-ing 
articles.  Lands  considered  waste  are  those  which  are  neither  legally 
occupied  nor  utilised  in  reality  by  any  one.' 


6i4         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

"Decrees  passed  in  1899  granted  a  totality  of  some  forty  conces- 
sions embracing  almost  the  whole  of  the  French  territory. 

"In  British  East  Africa,  the  powers  given  by  the  Royal  Charter, 
3d  September,  1888,  to  the  Imperial  British  East  Africa  Company, 
whilst  Article  16  forbids  it  to  grant  any  commercial  monopoly,  confer 
upon  it  the  right  to  'concede  all  lands  for  a  period  or  in  perpetuity, 
by  right  of  pledging  them  or  otherwise.' 

"After  the  British  Protectorate  was  substituted  for  the  Company, 
the  question  of  vacant  lands  was  regulated  in  the  following  manner, 
in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  report  of  Mr.  (now  Sir)  H.  H. 
Johnston,  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  Special  Commissioner,  dated  27th 
April,  1900: 

"  'The  land  question  may  now  be  considered  as  partially  solved  over 
the  greater  part  of  the  Uganda  Protectorate.  Over  all  the  more 
thickly-inhabited  countries  the  waste  or  vmoccupied  lands  belong  to 
Her  Majesty  the  Queen,  having  been  transferred  to  the  Crown,  in  most 
cases  by  agreement  with  the  chiefs,  after  payment  of  indemnities ;  in 
some  other  cases,  as  in  Unyoro,  as  the  result  of  conquest.  .  .  .  By 
Proclamation  it  has  been  forbidden  to  any  foreigner  to  acquire  land 
from  the  natives  in  any  part  of  the  Uganda  Protectorate  without  the 
prior  assent  of  the  Uganda  Administration.  ...  A  large  area 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Uganda  is  guaranteed  to  the  possession  of  its  native 
occupants.  The  rest  of  the  land,  including  the  forests,  has  now  been 
transferred  by  agreement  to  the  Crown  on  behalf  of,  and  in  trust  for, 
the  administration  of  the  Uganda  Protectorate.' 

"Finally  the  land  regime  in  the  Portuguese  Colonies,  especially  in 
Angola,  is  regulated  by  the  decree  of  9th  May,  1901,  the  first  article 
of  which  stipulates : 

"'The  State  domain  in  the  countries  beyond  the  sea  are  all  lands 
which  at  the  date  of  the  publication  of  this  law  do  not  constitute  a 
private  property,  acquired  according  to  the  terms  of  Portuguese 
legislation. ' 

"The  Congolese  law  protects  the  natives  in  the  enjoyment  of  the 
lands  that  they  occupy,  and  in  fact  not  only  are  they  not  disturbed  in 
that  enjoyment,  but  it  even  extends  their  cultivation  and  their  planta- 
tions in  proportion  with  their  necessities.  Manifold  are  the  measures 
taken  by  the  Congo  State  in  order  to  safeguard  the  natives  against  all 
spoliation : 

"'No  one  has  the  right  to  dispossess  the  natives  of  the  lands  which 
they  occupy.'     (Order  of  ist  July,  1885,  Article  2.) 

"'The  lands  occupied  by  native  populations  under  the  authority  of 
their  chiefs  shall  continue  to  be  governed  by  local  customs  and  uses.' 
(Decree  of  14th  September,  1886,  Article  2.) 

"'AH  acts  or  conventions  which  would  tend  to  expel  the  natives 
from  the  lands  that  they  occupy,  or  to    deprive  them,  directly  or 


Appendix  615 

indirectly,  of  their  liberty,  or  of  their  means  of  existence  are  forbidden.* 
(Decree  of  14th  September,  1886,  Article  2.) 

"'When  native  villages  are  surrotinded  by  alienated  or  leased  lands, 
the  natives  shall  be  able,  as  soon  as  the  official  measurement  has  been 
effected,  to  extend  their  cultivation  without  the  consent  of  the  pro- 
prietor, or  the  lessee,  over  the  vacant  lands  which  surround  their  vil- 
lages.*    (Decree  of  9th  April,  1893,  Article  6.) 

"'The  members  of  the  Commission  of  Lands  will  specially  examine 
whether  the  lands  asked  for  should  not  be  reserved  either  for  require- 
ments of  public  utility,  or  in  \'iew  of  permitting  the  development  of 
native  cultivation.'     (Decree  of  2nd  February,  1898,  Article  2.) 

"The  other  Powers  have  not  understood  otherwise  than  the  Congo 
State  the  obligations  which  are  imposed  upon  them  in  this  require  in 
favovir  of  the  natives.  So  the  decrees  of  concessions  in  the  French 
Congo  contain  in  the  loth  Article  the  clause  that: 

'"The  Society  having  the  concession  cannot  exercise  the  rights  of 
enjoyment  and  exploitation  which  are  accorded  to  it  except  outside 
villages  occupied  by  natives,  and  the  lands  reserved  to  them  for  pur- 
poses of  cultivation,  pasturage,  or  as  forest.  The  surroundings  of 
these  lands  shall  be  fixed  by  the  decisions  of  the  Governor  of  the 
Colony,  which  shall  equally  determine  the  lands  over  which  the 
natives  shall  preserve  the  rights  of  hunting  and  fishing.' 

"In  German  East  Africa,  the  regulation  of  the  27th  November, 
1895,  Article  2,  stipulates: 

'"Article  2. — If  on  fixed  lands,  chiefs,  villages,  or  other  native  com- 
munities assert  rights  based  upon  a  pretended  sovereignty,  or  if  these 
rights  belong  to  them,  it  will  be  necessary  to  take  them  into  account 
so  far  as  possible,  and  to  endeavour  before  anything  to  arrive  at  a 
friendly  arrangement  in  virtue  of  which  the  territory  necessary  for 
the  existence  of  the  community  shall  be  reserved,  and  the  remainder 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government. 

"'If  this  arrangement  is  not  brought  about,  the  Governor  decides.' 

"Commenting  upon  this  arrangement,  the  circular  of  29th  April, 
1900,  of  the  Imperial  Governor  von  Liebert  [Germany]  gives  the 
following  instructions : 

"'In  principle  there  should  only  be  left  to  the  natives  the  lands  of 
which  they  have  absolute  need  for  their  system  of  exchange,  and  for 
the  existence  of  their  village  communities.  Nevertheless,  in  order  not 
to  give  rise  to  political  complications,  care  will  be  taken  provisionally, 
in  the  practical  execution  of  this  rule,  not  to  show  too  much  rigour, 
and  especially  is  it  recommended  not  to  extend  the  taking  possession 
of  property  without  an  owner  except  in  regions  which  are  under  a 
strong  administration.' 

"The  Portuguese  decree  of  9th  May,  1901,  says: 

"  'Article  2. — The  right  of  natives  to  lands  habitually  cultivated  by 


6i6         Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

them,  which  are  comprised  in  the  sphere  of  the  concessions,  is  recog- 
nised; a  certain  extent  of  land  shall  be  reserved  for  the  habitation  and 
the  agricultural  work  of  those  residing  there.'  " 


CONCESSIONAIRES,  PRIVATE  FIRMS,  AND  COMMER- 
CIAL TRADING  COMPANIES  IN  THE 
CONGO  FREE  STATE 

There  are  at  present  over  four  htmdred  commercial  establishments 
canyrng  on  trade  in  the  Belgian  Congo,  among  which  are  the  following: 

Societe  Anonyme  Beige  pour  le  Commerce  du  Haut-Congo,  31 
establishments;  Abir,  28;  Nieuwe  Afrikaansche  Handels  Vennoot- 
schap,  28;  Societe  Anversoise  du  Commerce  au  Congo,  22;  Comite 
Special  du  Katanga,  21 ;  Hatton  &  Cookson  [Liverpool],  16;  Comptoir 
Commercial  Congolais,  13;  Valle  &  Azevedo,  12;  Magasins  Gener- 
aux,  12;  Compagnie  du  Congo  Portugais,  10;  Compagnie  du  Lomami, 
9;  Freitas  &  Barreira,  9;  Produits  Vegetaux  du  Haut-Kasai,  8; 
Plantations  de  la  Lukula,  7  ;  Credit  Commercial  Congolais,  7  ;  L'Enter- 
prise  Africaine,  7  ;  Societe  Isangi,  7  ;  La  Helgika,  6;  Shanu,  6;  L'Equa- 
toriale  Congolaise,  5;  La  Congolia,  4;  La  Loanje,  4;  Produits  du 
Mayumbe,  4;  La  Lulonga,  4;  Comptoirs  Congolais  Velde,  4;  Les 
Produits  du  Congo,  4 ;  Samuel,  4;  Shanusi  Agbabiaka,  4;  Les  Planta- 
tions Lacourt,  3 ;  Societe  Forestiere  et  Commerciale  du  Haut-Congo, 
3 ;  Plantations  du  Lubefu,  3 ;  Ferreira  Viegas,  3 ;  La  Djuma,  3 ;  Syn- 
dicat  Commercial  et  Agricole  du  Maytmibe,  3 ;  Mouture  et  Panification, 
2;  Ikelemba,  2;  Societe  d Agriculture  et  de  Plantations  au  Congo,  2; 
Compagnie  Agricole  du  Mayumbe,  2;  Ferreira  Freres,  2;  Traffic  Con- 
golais, 2;  Societe  Africa,  2;  Societe  Test  du  Kwango,  2;  Dana  Ber- 
nabe,  2 ;  Carrico  Freres,  2 ;  Ribiero,  2 ;  Ferreira  &  Figueiredo,  2 ; 
Vicoso  &  Martins,  2 ;  A.  N.  Figueiredo,  2 ;  Plantations  Coloniales  la 
Luki,  I ;  Compagnie  Sucriere  Europeene  et  Coloniale,  i ;  La  Mayum- 
bienne,  i;  L'Urselia,  i;  La  Kassaienne,  i;  Citas,  i;  Compagnie  Fran- 
faise  du  Haut-Congo,  i ;  Compagnie  Brvixelloise  pour  le  Commerce  du 
Haut-Congo,  i ;  La  Centrale  Africaine,  i ;  Harms  &  Marcus,  i ;  D'Hey- 
gere,  i ;  Lemos  et  Irmoo,  i ;  Compagnie  Franco-Beige,  i ;  Rocha 
Santos  et  Cie.,  i;  Agme,  i;  Docteur  Villa,  i;  Messageries  Fluviales, 
I ;  Folgosa,  i ;  Joao  da  Fonseca,  i ;  Rebello  Ltiiz,  i ;  Felgueiras,  i ; 
Branca  da  Giovanni,  i ;  Gomez,  i ;  Nogueira,  i ;  Shanu,  i ;  Sabai 
Smith,  I ;  Thomas,  i ;  Disu  Aremu,  i ;  Smithe,  i ;  Adiolo  Balawao, 
I ;  John  Andrew,  i ;  Mana,  i ;  Somano  Fayamo,  i ;  Radji  Ibadan,  i ; 
Davidson  Williams,  i ;  Macole,  i ;  Georges  Southey,  i ;  Lania,  i ; 
Abondu  Ramano,  i ;    Mamadu  Adejene,  i ;    Moses  Williams,  i ;  John 


Appendix 


617 


Sani,  I ;  J.  W.  Da\'is,  i ;  John  David,  i ;  John  Uriah,  i ;  Toki,  i ; 
Adekule,  i;  Mabadu  Vango,  i;  N'chiama  Lello,  i;  Choko  Malo,  i ; 
Mafonda  N'Baka,  i;  Simpson,  i;  Sacra  Mancoga,  i;  Latete  Bako, 
I ;  Peto  N'Foa,  i ;  Malenda  Longo,  i ;  Chioma  Motindoungou,  i ;  Sacra 
Shimbanda,  i;    Hall  Chamberlain,  i. 


PRINCIPAL  CONGO  OFFICIALS  IN  BRUSSELS, 
CENTRAL  ADMINISTRATION 


Ministers  of  State: 
Treasurer-General: 
Secretaries-General : 


Directors: 


Chief  of  Division: 


Baron  van  Eetvelde,  Chevalier  Descamps. 

M.    H.   POCHEZ. 

M.  le  Chevalier  A.  de  Cuvelier,  Department  of 
Foreign  Affairs  and  Justice;  M.  H.  Droogmans, 
Department  of  Finances;  Commandant  C.  H. 
LiEBRECHTS,  Department  of  the  Interior. 

M.  A.  Baerts,  Chef  de  Cabinet;  M.  N.  Arnold, 
Auditor;  M.  Ed.  Kervyn,  Director  of  the  De- 
partment of  Foreign  Affairs;  M.  de  Keuzer, 
Director  of  the  Department  of  Finances;  Le 
Major  Lombard,  and  Commandant  F.  Lebrun, 
Directors  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 

M.  G.  Olyff,  Chief  of  Division  of  the  Department 
of  Foreign  Affairs. 


OFFICIALS  OF  THE  LOCAL  ADMINISTRATION  OF 
THE  CONGO  FREE  STATE 


Governor-General: 
Vice-Governors-General: 
Secretary-General: 
Directors: 


Court  of  Appeal: 


Court  of  First  Instance: 
Prosecuting  Attorney: 
Magistrates  {Territorial 


General  Baron  Wahis. 

FucHS,  Wangermee,  Costermans. 

Van  Damme. 

Of  Justice:  A.  Gohr. 

Of  Finance:  Delhaye. 

Of  Agriculture:  Brohee. 

Of  Public  Works:  Itten. 

President,  Interior  Administration :    Baron  G. 

Nisco. 
Judges:  Horstmans,  A.  Gohr. 
Judge:  T.  Beeckman. 
F.  Waleffe. 
Judges  and  Substitutes):   See  Chapter  XXII. 


6i8  Story  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

Public  Force:  Commander-in-Chief:  Major  Warnant. 

Chief  of  the  District  of  Boma,  Costermans. 

Banana,  Dr.  Casse. 

Matadi,  Derache. 

The  Cataracts,  Delhaye. 

Stanley  Pool,  Mahieu. 

Lake  Leopold  IL,  Storms. 

The  Equateur,  Stevens. 

The  Bangalas,  Gerard. 

The  Ubanghi,  Bertrand, 

The  Uelle,  Wacquez. 

Chief  of  the  Zone:  Rubi  Uelle,  Pourbaix. 

Uere  Bomu,  Holm. 

Bomokandi,  Sarolea. 

Gurba  Dungu,  Samaes. 

Enclave  of  Lado,  Seresche. 

Chief  of  the  District  of  the  Aruwimi,  Pimpurniaux. 

Lualaba,  Chexot. 

Kwango,  Duvivier. 

Oriental  Prov.,  De  Meulemeester, 

Chief  of   the  Zone   of   Haut-Ituri,  Exgh. 

Ponthierville,  Cordella. 

Manyema,  Verdick. 

Stanley  Falls,  Federspiel. 

Ruzizi-Kivu,  Tombeur. 

THE  BELGIAN  MINISTER  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Baron  Ludovic  Moncheur,  Belgian  Legation,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Baron  Moncheur  graduated  at  the  University  of  Louvain  (Belgium) 
in  philosophy,  letters,  and  law,  with  the  highest  honours.  He  en- 
tered the  diplomatic  service  of  Belgium  at  the  age  of  twenty-five, 
and  was  successively  Attache  to  the  Belgian  Legation  at  The  Hague 
in  1883;  Second  Secretary,  Belgian  Legation  at  Vienna,  1885;  First 
Secretary,  Belgian  Legation  at  Berlin,  1887;  Counsellor  of  the  Belgian 
Legation  at  Rome,  1892;  Charge  d 'Affaires  at  Luxembourg,  1897; 
Minister  Resident  of  Belgium  to  Mexico,  1898;  Envoy  Extraordinary 
and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  Belgium  to  the  United  States,  1901. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Geographical  Society  of  Antwerp,  and  author 
of  La  Terre  chaude  Mexicaine  and  Front  Tampico  to  the  Pacific. 

The  Baroness  Moncheur  is  a  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Powell  Clayton, 
United  States  Minister  to  Mexico. 


INDEX 


A.  B.  I.  R.,  608 

Aborigines'  Protection  Society, 
369,  374;  damaging  estimate 
of  its  work  and  methods,  note, 
376  et  seq.,  451  et  seq.,  456,  478 

Africa,  formerly  called  the  "Dark 
Continent,"  2;  its  value  un- 
recognised, ibid.;  diamonds  in, 
ibid.;  its  climate  once  thought 
to  be  fatal  to  Europeans,  ibid.; 
portioned  by  Europe  in  eight- 
eenth century  to  facilitate 
slave  trade,   129 

Africa,  Central,  slavery  in,  5 ; 
creation  of  International  As- 
sociation for  its  exploration 
and  ciNdlisation,  12;  its  health- 
fulness  insisted  upon  by  Liv- 
ingstone and  Stanley,  1 7  ;  large 
sections  claimed  by  England, 
France,  Portugal,  and  Ger- 
many, ibid.;  review  of,  64  et 
seq.;  nomadic  habits  of  its 
people,  223;  their  superstition, 
tbia.;  its  consequences,  224;  the 
iron  horse  in,  252;  its  real 
curse,  289 

African  Exploration  Fund,  29; 
London  Geographical  Society 
contributes  ^(^250,  t6jd.;  Belgian 
Committee  collects  500,000 
francs,  ibid. 

African  explorers,  Gladstone's 
opinion  of,  4 

Albert  Edward,  Lake,  56,  208 

Albert  Nyanza,  Lake,  52,  56 

Albert ville,  58 

Alcohol,  in  Congo  Free  State,  138; 
its  prohibition,  273;  in  Lagos, 
note,  289,  311 

Alvensleben,  Count  Von,  136; 
speech  at  second  Brussels  Con- 
ference, 143 


American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union,  299,  300;  fifteen  grants 
of  land  to,  387 

American  Congo  Mission,  two 
grants  of  land  to,  387 

American  Indians,  Wheaton  on 
their  political  status,  71 

American  Secretary  of  State  (Mr. 
Fish)  on  political  status  of 
savages,  72 

Amity,  Commerce,  and  Naviga- 
tion, treaty  of,  553  et  seq.;  its 
ratification   by   United  States, 

559 
Anglo- Portuguese        Convention, 

21 ;   it  is  quashed,  ibid. 
Anti-slavery  meeting  at  Cologne, 

131 
Anti-Slavery  Society,  of  Belgium, 
founded  by  Cardinal  La\'igerie, 

91 

Arab  slave-traders,  5 

Armstrong,  Rev.  W.  D.  See 
Epondo. 

Amot,  Mr.  Frederick  Stanley,  on 
native  punishments,  426 

Amtz,  Prof.  Egide,  105  ;  argument 
by,  516 

Aruwimi,  52,  179 

Ascenso,  Signor,  Italian  phy- 
sician, remarks  on  Congo  Free 
State,  428  c<  seq. 

Askaris,  a  Congolese  tribe  em- 
ployed by  Stanley  as  carriers, 

39 
Atrocities,  Congo,  578,  595  et  seq. 
Austria-Hungary,  68 
Avakubi,  219,  220,  221 
Azandes,  158 

B 

Bacon  on  progress  of  States,  18 
Bacteriological  Institute,  268 
Bahr-Djur,  213 


619 


620 


Index 


Bahr-el-Ghazal,  France  objects  to 
Great  Britain  leasing  it  to 
Congo  Free  State,  208,  210; 
British  scheme  to  break  lease, 
210,  211,  213;  vast  mineral 
wealth  discovered  there,  214 

Baker,  Sir  Samuel,  employed  by 
Khedive  of  Egypt,  4;  dis- 
covers Lake  Albert,  ibid. 

Bakumu,  cannibal  tribe,  46; 
Stanley's  encounters  with,  ibid. 

Balolo,  the  "men  of  iron,"  46 

Bangala,  74 

Bankes,     Mr.    J.    Eldon,    K.    C, 

341. 

Banning,  M.  Emile,  136 

Bantu  race,  309 

Banzyville,  53 

Baoilis,  153 

Baptist  Missionary  Society  of 
London,  299,  300 

Baraka,  59 

Barbour,  Rev.  Thomas  S.,  pre- 
sents memorial  to  Congress, 
387  et  seq.,  396 

Baron  A.  Descamps.  See  Des- 
camps,  Baron  A. 

Baron  de  Courcel.     See  Courcel. 

Baron  Dhanis.     See  Dhanis. 

Baron  Gericke  d'Hera'ijen.  See 
D'Herwijen. 

Baron  Lambermont.  See  Lam- 
bermont.  Baron. 

Baron  Nisco.     See  Nisco,  Baron. 

Baron  Van  Eetvelde.  See  Eet- 
velde.  Baron  Van. 

Batetelas,  52;  their  grievance, 
216,  218,  220,  221,  222;  their 
revolt  crushed,  222 

Baudouinville,  58,  59 

Beemaert,  M.,  Belgian  Minister 
of  Finance,  speech  b3^  97 

Belgian  and  French  boundary, 
46 

Belgian  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
raises  volunteer  corps  to  pro- 
tect individual  liberty,  200; 
despatches  three  missionary  ex- 
peditions to  Congo,  ibid. 

Belgian  Society  of  the  Upper 
Congo,  178 

Belgique,  La,  twin-screw  steamer 
employed  by  Stanley,  39 

Bena  Kalunga,  194 

Benedetti,  M.  Antoine,  373;  ap- 
pointed   chief    commissary    of 


Congo  State,  376;  pretends  he 
is  opposed  to  Congo  Govern- 
ment, 377 

Bergamoyo,  ^^ 

Berlin  Conference,  23,  26,  94,  308, 
309 ;  the  General  Act  of,  its  fvill 
text,  530  ei  5^17. 

Bernard,  Montague,  on  de  jure 
and  de  facto  governments,  69 

Besche,  De,  218 

Bia,  Lieutenant,  47 

Big^vood,  Mr.,  353 

Bird,  Strode  &  Bird,  Messrs., 
solicitors,  341 

Bishop  Taylor  Self-Supporting 
Mission,  300;  seven  grants  of 
land  to,  387 

Bismarck,  Prince,  convenes  In- 
ternational Conference  at  Ber- 
lin to  regulate  "African  Ques- 
tion," 23;  speech,  ibid.;  speech, 
26;  speech  at  close  of  Berlin 
Conference,  94 

Black  and  White  comments  upon 
Lord  Lansdowne's  dispatch  of 
August  8,  1903,  459 

Blood-brotherhood,  160 

Blue  Mountains,  52,  53 

Bluntschli,  M.,  on  the  rights  of 
new  States,  527 

Bokala,  50 

Boma,  a  native  fort,  187,  188, 
note;  description  of,  by  Dr. 
Hinde,  191 

Bosco,  M.  Gennaro,  public  prose- 
cutor.    See  Epondo. 

Bosoko,  179 

Boston  Peace  Conference,  389 

Boula  Matari,  native  name  for 
Stanley,  235 

Boulger,  Mr.  Demetrius  C,  165, 
note,  188 

Bouree,  M.,  136 

Bourne,  Mr.  Fox,  Secretary  Abor- 
igines' Protection  Society,  372, 
373. 386 

Bowara,  54 

Brabant,  Duke  of  {see  Leopold 
II.),  4,  65 

Brassem,  Lieut  ,  47 

Brazza,  De,  262 

Britain,  Great,  recognises  Portu- 
gal's claims  to  Congo  River, 
20;  declines  to  aid  Stanley,  65; 
appeals  to  King  Leopold  to 
call   conference  at    Brussels  to 


Index 


621 


Britain — Continued 

concert  measures  for  suppres- 
sion of  slavery  on  East  Coast 
of  Africa,  132;  land  system 
of  its  African  colonies,  612  et 
seq. 

British  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  610 

British  Baptist  Society  Corpora- 
tion, fifteen  grants  of  land  to, 

387 

British  colonies,  crown  lands  in, 
329;  system  of  government  at- 
tacked, 589 

British  expedition  to  Congo,  43 

Brussels,  International  Confer- 
ence of  Geographers  (1876)  at, 
7,  134;  Brussels  Second  Con- 
ference (1889-90),  declaration 
of  General  Act  of,  552  et  seq.; 
ratification  by  United  States, 
SS9  et  seq. 

Bruyn,  De,  181,  183 

Bryon,  M.,  34 

Bull,  John,  paints  the  map  red, 
19;  some  of  his  traits,  366  et 
seq.;  his  missionaries  at  work 
for  his  merchants,  3 88 

Burdo,  M.,  36 

Burrows,  Captain  Guy,  is  charged 
by  Belgian  officers  with  libel,  340 
et  seq.;  claims  to  have  silenced 
Captain  Salusbury,  348;  is  an- 
nounced to  contribute  series  of 
articles  on  Congo  Free  State  to 
Wide  World  Magazine,  351; 
agrees  with  R.  A.  Everett  & 
Co.  as  to  publication  of  book 
about  Congo,  ibid.;  his  agree- 
ment with  Mr.  John  George 
Leigh,  353 

Burton,  Sir  Richard,  discovers 
Lake  Tanganyika,  4,  58 

Busira-Momboya  River,  335 


Cambier,  Lieut.,  32;  assumes 
command  of  Belgian  expedi- 
tion, 33;  reaches  Mirambo's 
territory,  ibid.;  becomes 
"blood-brother"  of  Mirambo, 
ibid.;  founds  station  on  Lake 
Tanganyika,  34;  learns  of  death 
of  Wautier,  ibid.;  hands  over 


command  to  Captain  Ram- 
aeckers,  36,  253,  256 

Cameron,  Commander  Lovett,  on 
native  punishments,  425 

Campbell,  Mr.  John,  M.P.,  de- 
rides anti-Congo  agitation,  370 

Canada,  British,  concessions  in, 
328 

Canisius,  M.,  349 

Cannibalism,  161;  State  circular 
on  repression  of,  566  et  seq. 

Caoutchouc.     See  Rubber. 

Cape-to-Cairo  Railway,  208 

Cardinal  Lavigerie,  90 

Carl34e,  Thomas,  his  philosophy. 

Carriers,  their  insubordination,  34 

Casement,  Mr.  Roger,  his  Brit- 
annic Majesty's  consul,  175, 
234;  Congo  Government's  reply 
to  his  report  refused  publica- 
tion by  London  editors,  369; 
suppression  of  parts  of  his  re- 
port favourable  to  Congo  Free 
State,  371,  465,  475  et  seq.,  477; 
notes  by  Congo  Administration 
on  his  report,  sgi  et  seq. 

Cassart,  Lieut.,  185 

Cataracts  of  Mokoangi,  54 

Cataracts  Railway,  252;  cost  of 
travelling  upon,   255 

Cataracts  of  Zongo,  54 

Catholic  Herald,  371  et  seq. 

Cattle,  269 

Central  Africa.  See  Africa,  Cen- 
tral. 

Chaltin,  Commandant,  190; 
strikes  sev^ere  blow  at  Der- 
vishes, 201,  219;  his  action  for 
libel  against  Captain  Guy  Bur- 
rows, 340  et  seq. 

Charing  Cross  Hospital,  London, 
267 

Chieftaincies,  native,  239 

Chige,  battle  at,  182,  183 

Chimay,  Prince  de,  135 

Christian  and  Missionary  Alliance, 
300 

Christy,  Dr.,  English  physician, 
remarks  on  Congo  Free  State, 
430  et  seq. 

Chronique,  461 

Cicatrisation,  156 

Cinnamon,  268 

Clarke,  Sir  Edward,  K.  C,  341; 
his  speech  in  case  against  Cap- 


622 


Index 


Clarke,  Sir  Edward — Continued 
tain  Guy  Burrows  and  Messrs. 
R.    A.    Everett   &   Co.,    342   et 
seq.,  363.  364 

Cloves,  269 

Coal,  discovery  of,  291 

Cocoa,  268;  State  reward  for  na- 
tive cultivation  of,  269 

Coffee,  53,  268;  State  reward  for 
native  cultivation  of,  269 

Cologne,  anti-slavery  meeting  at, 

131 
Colonel  Strauch.     See  Strauch. 

Comite  d'  Etudes  du  Haut-Congo 
formed  at  Brussels,  29;  its 
name  changed  to  International 
Association  of  the  Congo,  39; 
Stanley  enters  its  service,  ibid. 

Commerce,  Chamber  of,  of  Man- 
chester (England),  correspond- 
ence with  British  Secretary  for 
Foreign  Affairs  re  Upper  Congo, 
S2g  et  seq. 

Commerce,  Chamber  of,  of  State 
of  New  York,  resolution  of,  528 
et  seq. 

Concessionary  companies,  116; 
their  contracts  with  the  State 
and  their  operations,  ^22  et  seq. 

Congo  Bololo  Mission,  299;  seven 
grants  of  land  to,  387 

Congo,  Conventional  Basin  of 
the,  its  limits,  206 

Congo  Free  State,  its  evolution, 
2 ;  conceived  by  King  of  the 
Belgians  and  Stanley,  22;  its 
flag,  26;  extent,  44;  boiindary 
with  North-eastern  Rhodesia, 
47 ;  its  natural  wealth,  5 1 ; 
early  legislation  in,  66;  a  prop- 
erly organised  government  pre- 
vious to  General  Act  of  Berlin 
Congress,  67;  recognised  as 
such  by  Powers  previous  to 
that  Act,  ibid.;  declaration 
concerning,  by  General  San- 
ford,  79;  recognised  as  a 
friendly  government  by  Amer- 
ican Secretary  of  State  Freling- 
huysen,  80 ;  makes  treaties  with 
United  States  iii  1884  and 
1885,  92;  freedom  of  trade  es- 
tablished in,  by  General  Act  of 
Berlin  Conference,  ibid.;  treat- 
ies with  varioiis  powers,  93; 
attacked  by  Sir  Charles  Dilke 


in  British  Parliament,  96;  de- 
velops land,  115;  concessionaire 
companies  in,  116;  alcohol  in, 
138;  import  duties,  140;  cost 
of  founding  the  State,  145; 
bequeathed  by  Sovereign  to 
Belgiuin,  149;  population,  151; 
origin  of  races,  152  et  seq.; 
Public  Force,  164;  prohibits 
trade  in  firearms,  gunpowder, 
and  other  explosives,  200; 
regulates  contracts  of  service, 
ibid.;  creates  voltmteer  corps 
to  protect  individual  Uberty, 
ibid.;  delimitation  of  its  terri- 
tory, 206;  its  enemies,  223; 
displacement  of  population, 
225;  internal  administration, 
228;  nationality  of  its  servants, 
230;  Department  of  Justice, 23 1, 
intrigues  against,  235  ;  its  means 
of  communication  with  Eu- 
rope, 249;  scientific  stations  in, 
264;  climate,  265;  influx  of 
Europeans  and  Americans, 
ibid.;  trade  and  revenue,  277; 
receives  from  King  Leopold 
annual  subsidy  of  1,000,000 
francs,  278;  exports  and  im- 
ports, 280-286;  Herr  Eberhard 
Von  Schkopp  on  trade  of,  287; 
declining  trade  with  England, 
290;  discoveries  of  gold,  coal, 
and  copper  in,  291;  revenue, 
292;  expenditure,  294  et  seq.; 
monetary  system,  ibid.;  mis- 
sions in,  299;  schools,  301; 
origin  of  land  system,  313; 
unappropriated  lands  declared 
property  of,  314;  dealings  with 
foreign  sqiiatters  upon  lands  in 
Congo  Basin,  316;  adopts  Tor- 
rens  Act  system  of  transferring 
land  titles,  317;  appoints  Land 
Commission,  318;  authorises 
natives  to  work  mines  on 
own  account,  319;  recognises 
certain  local  customs  as  valid, 
320;  its  various  land  tenures, 
322  ;  traders'  alleged  grievances 
against,  330  et  seq.;  domain  of 
the  crown,  its  extent,  335  et 
seq.;  its  forests  finest  in  the 
world,  336;  its  mining  laws, 
ibid,  et  seq.;  campaign  against, 
begun    in    America,    387 ;    its 


Index 


62 


Congo  Free  State — Continued 
value  generally  recognised,  447 ; 
replies  to  Lord  Lansdowne's 
dispatch  of  August  8,  1903, 
458 ;  reception  of  reply  by 
British  press,  460;  instructions 
respecting  officials  and  natives, 
569;  text  of  reply  to  British 
dispatch  of  August  8,  1903,  577 
et  seq.;  official  correspondence 
with  Great  Britain,  590;  notes 
on  Mr.  Casement's  report,  591 
et  seq.;  concessionaires,  private 
firms,  and  trading  companies 
therein,  616  et  seq.;  principal 
officials  in  Brussels,  617;  prin- 
cipal local  officials,  ibid. 

Congo,  Lower,  201;  charted  by 
buoys,    250,   252 

Congo,  Middle,  46,  201 

Congo  Question,  3 

Congo  Reform  Association  (of 
Liverpool),  its  specious  argu- 
ments, 315;  letter  to,  from 
editor  of  Catholic  Herald,  note, 
371,  374,  452;  establishes  its 
American  headquarters  at  Bos- 
ton, 467 

Congo  Reform  Association,  Sec- 
retary of,  372;  enters  into 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Bene- 
detti,  and  requests  interna ew 
with  him,  378,  379;  intro- 
duces Mr.  Benedetti  to  Mr.  John 
Holt,  380;  his  agreement  with 
Mr.  Benedetti,  381  et  seq.;  re- 
ceives letter  from  Mr.  Bene- 
detti, 383,  384,  386;  presents 
memorial  to  President  Roose- 
velt, asking  for  American  in- 
tervention in  affairs  of  Congo 
Free  State,  388;  abuses  King 
Leopold  at  Boston  Peace  Con- 
gress, 395;  is  estimated  by 
Major  James  Harrison,  409  et 
seq.;  publishes  book  attacking 
government  of  French  Congo, 
447  et  seq.;  ceases  hostility  to 
French  Congo,  ibid.;  the  Congo 
coroner,  468;  specimen  of  his 
vituperative  fanfaronade,  470 
et  seq. 

Congo  River,  its  source,  45;  dis- 
covered by  Lixdngstone,  ibid.; 
its  harbours  and  shipping,  250; 
Sir  Travers  Tmss  on  free  navi- 


gation of,  502;  navigation  of, 
as  provided  for  in  General  Act 
of  Berlin  Conference,  536  et 
seq. 

Congo,  Upper,  44,  187;  slavery 
finally  extinguished  on,  201, 
252 

Copal,  272 

Copper,  discovery  of,  291 

Coquilhat,  Captain,  165 

Carrier c  Toscano,  463 

Coimt  Van  der  Straeten  Ponthoz. 
See  Ponthoz. 

Courcel,  Baron  de,  speech  at  In- 
ternational Conference,  Berlin, 
27 

Cranbome,  Viscount.  See  Salis- 
bury, Marquess  of. 

Crespel,  Captain,  commands  first 
Belgian  expedition,  32;  arrives 
at  Zanzibar,  ibid.;  his  death, 
ibid. 

Crispe,  Mr.,  K.  C,  341,  357 

Cromer,  Lord,  reports  upon  mi- 
gratory habit  of  Soudan  popu- 
lation, 226;  454 

Crystal  Mountains,  47 

Curse  of  Central  Africa,  The,  title 
of  book  by  Captain  Guy  Bur- 
rows, 353 

Curzon,  Viscount,  Viceroy  and 
Governor-General  of  India,  his 
opinion  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
Government,  422 

Cuvelier,  Chevalier  de.  Secretary 
of  State  of  Congo  Free  State, 
293 


Daily   Chronicle,   letter  to,   from 

Sir  Harry  Johnston,  401  et  seq. 

Daily  News,   369,  371,  372,   373, 

374 

Daily  Telegraph  (London),  Stan- 
ley's letters  to,  38 

D'Arenberg,  Prince  F.,  453 

Davis,  Mr.  Alexander,  his  opinion 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  Gov- 
ernment, extracted  from  his 
book.  The  Native  Problem  in 
South  Africa,  418  et  seq. 

Defence  of  Congo  Free  State,  577 
et  seq. 

Dekere,  54 


624 


Index 


De  Kcyser,  Captain  Henri  Joseph 
Leon,  his  action  for  libel  against 
Captain  Guy  Burrows,  340  et 
seq.;  is  awarded  £500  damages 
and  costs,  363 

Delcommune,  Lieut.,  47,  55,  184, 

185 

Delecourt,  Lieut.,  220 

Derscheid,  Lieut.,  47 

Descamps,  Baron  A.,  his  work  en- 
titled New  Africa,  74;  exposi- 
tion of  international  law,  81; 
on  Government  Civilisation  in 
New  Countries,  no;  257,  293; 
exposition  of  early  Congolese 
policy,  309;  analysis  of  theory 
of  State  ownership  of  vacant 
lands,  315 

Dhanis,  Lieut,  (afterwards  Bar- 
on), 179,  180,  181,  182,  183, 
184,  185,  186,  187,  note  188, 
189,  190,  191,  192,  193,  194; 
his  final  report  on  Arab  cam- 
paign, 195;  219,  220,  221,  222 

D'Herwijnen,  Baron  Gericke,  141 

Diego  Cam,  discoverer  of  the 
Congo,  42 

Dilke,  Sir  Charles,  attacks  Congo 
Free  State  in  British  Parlia- 
ment, 96,  370,  447,  455 

Dirfi,  220 

Doorme,  Lieut.,  187 

Doumergue,  M.  Gaston  (French 
Colonial  Minister),  decree  con- 
solidating legislation  for  French 
West  Africa,  338  ei  seq. 

Droeven,  218 

Dubreucq,  Commandant,  his  ac- 
tion for  libel  against  Captain 
Guy  Burrows,  340  et  seq. 

Duchesne,  Lieut.,  182 

Dufile,  railroad  to  Redjaf,   256 

Dufoumy,  A.,  President  of  the 
Federation  for  the  Defence  of 
Belgian  Interests  Abroad,  395 

Dupont,  Professor,  assistant  at 
Court  of  Inquiry,  476 

Dutalis,  Lieut.,  35 

Dutrieux,  Dr.,  33 


E 


Edward,  King  of  England,  visits 

Paris,  448 
Eetvelde,  Baron  Van,  136;  report 

on  conscription,  168;  report  on 


civilisation  of  native  races,  202; 
reviews  complete  work  of  Congo 
Free  State,  203 

Egypt,  Khedive  of,  employs  Sir 
Samuel  Baker,  4;  is  coerced 
by  Europe  to  suppress  slave- 
trading  on  the  Upper  Nile,  6; 
employs  Sir  Samuel  Baker  and 
General  Gordon  to  govern  the 
Soudan,  ibid. 

Ekongo,  King  of,  42;  his  conver- 
sion to  Christianity,  ibid.;  old 
kingdom  of,  43 

Elephants,  Indian,  experiment 
with,  35;  abundant  in  Kivu 
forest,  57,  272 

Emin  Pasha,  53,  60,  188 

Employees,  dismissed,  misrepre- 
sentations by,  580 

En  Avant,  steamer  employed  by 
Stanley,  39 

England,  claims  large  sections  of 
Africa,  17;  decreasing  trade 
with  Congo  Free  State,  290; 
its  cause,  ibid. 

Epondo  case,  595  ^^  seq. 

Equateurville,  46,  50 

Etienne,  M.  Eugene,  dissertation 
on  the  French  Congo  and 
Congo  Free  State,  324  et  seq. 

Etoile  Beige,  346,  355 

Evening  Transcript,  463  et  seq. 

Everett,  Messrs.  R.  A.  &  Co., 
London  publishers,  legal  action 
against  for  libel,  340  et  seq.; 
letter  from,  to  Secretary  of 
State  of  Congo  Free  State,  351 
et  seq. 

Expedition,  British,  to  Congo,  43 

Exports  from  Congo  Free  State, 
1903  (statistics  of),  280;  value 
of,  ibid.;  comparison  with  pre- 
vious years,  281 


Fashoda,  212,  213 
Favereau,  Baron  de,  478 
Federation    for    the    Defence    of 

Belgian  Interests  Abroad,  389; 

address  to  President  Roosevelt, 

390,  479 

Fetish  doctor,  223,  224,  225 

Fiji  Islands,  610 
f  Force  Publique,  216 

Foreign  Christian  Missionary  So- 
ciety, 300 


Index 


625 


Forfeit,  Mr.  William,  remarks  on 
Congo  Free  State,  427  ei  seq. 

Flanders,  Count  of,  becomes 
President  of  National  Commit- 
tee of  International  Association 
for  the  Exploration  and  Civil- 
isation of  Central  Africa,  13 

France,  war  with  Germany,  4; 
claims  large  sections  of  Africa, 
1 7 ;  sets  up  her  flag  at  Brazza- 
ville, 19;  denounces  Anglo- 
Portuguese  Convention,  21; 
recognises  International  Asso- 
ciation as  a  friendly  Govern- 
ment, 22;  land  system  of  its 
African  colonies,  612  et  seq. 

Franciscans,  301 

Francqui,  Lieut.,  47,  59,  184 

Fraud,  A  gross,  157 

Frelinghuysen,  F.  F.,  American 
Secretary  of  State,  recognises 
Congo  Free  State  as  a  friendly 
Government,  80 

French  and  Belgian  boundary,  46 

French  Sheldon,  Mrs.,  on  atroci- 
ties in  Congo  Free  State,  445 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  becomes  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Cape,  12 ;  letter  to, 
from  Mr.  H.  Nixon,  on  baneftd 
influence  of  Aborigines'  Pro- 
tection Society,  377 

Fuchs,  M.,  reports  on  Public 
Force,  170;  suggests  (in  his 
capacity  of  Vice  -  Governor- 
General)  plan  to  control  migra- 
tion of  natives,  226;  report  of 
July,  1904,  229;  report  on 
routes  for  motor  cars,  263 


Gandu,  181,  217,  218 
Garenganze  Evangelical  Mission, 

300 
General  Anzeiger,  461 
Germaine,  Mr.,  K.  C,  341 
Germany,    war   with    France,    4; 
claims  large  sections  of  Africa, 
17;  wants  part  of  East  Africa, 
19;     denounces     Anglo- Portu- 
guese   Convention,    21;    recog- 
nises International  Association 
as  a  friendly  Government,  22; 
invites    Powers    to    confer    in 
Berlin,    ibid.;   land    system    of 
its  African  colonies,  612  et  seq. 


Ghent,  Sisters  of  Charity,  301 

Gibbons,  Cardinal,  438;  letter  to 
Secretary  Congo  Reform  Asso- 
ciation, 439  et  seq. 

Gibbons,  Major  H.  H.,  opinion  of 
Congo  State,  583 

Gillain,  Commandant,  187,  194, 
217,  218 

Ginger,  268 

Gladstone,  his  opinion  of  African 
explorers,  4 

Globe,  The,  letter  from  Lord 
Mountmorres  to,  441  et  seq. 

Gois  Kapopa,  184 

Gold,   discovery  of,   291 

Goldsmid,  Sir  Frederic,  his  report 
on  Portuguese  claims,  21 

Gongo  Lutete.     See  Lutete. 

Gongo  MachofEe,  219 

Goodwill,  English  Baptist  mission 
steamer,  300 

Gordon,  General,  is  employed  by 
Khedive  of  Egypt  to  govern 
Soudan,  6;  appointed  by  King 
Leopold  to  chief  command  on 
the  Congo,  41 ;  British  Govern- 
ment claim  his  ser\'ices,  ibid. 

Gortchakoff,  Prince,  68 

Grant  discovers  sources  of  the 
Nile  and  Lake  Victoria,  4 

Granville,  Lord,  20 ;  on  develop- 
ment of  trade  in  Central 
Africa,   530 

Great  Britain.    See  Britain,  Great. 

Gregoire,  M.,  assistant  at  Court 
of  Inqmry,  476 

Grenfell,  Mr.  George,  English 
missionary,  remarks  on  Congo 
Free  State,  427;  on  adminis- 
tration of  justice  in,  568  et 
seq. 

Grey,  Mr.,  English  ci\'il  engineer, 
remarks  on  Congo  Free  State, 
435  ('t  seq. 

Grison,  Rev.  Father,  missionary 
in  charge  of  St.  Gabriel's, 
Stanley  Falls,  301 ;  extracts 
from  his  diary,  302;  his  strenu- 
ous life,  306,  307 

Guinness,  Dr.  H.  Grattan,  lec- 
tures in  Scotland  on  atrocities 
in  Congo  Free  State,  424  et  seq.; 

Gmnness,  Mrs.  H.  Grattan,  her 
testimony  different  from  that 
of  her  husband,  425 


626 


Index 


H 


Hamhurgischc  Borsen  Halle,  Neue, 
its  estimate  of  British  opinion 
of  Congo  Free  State,  ;i^^  et  seq. 

Hamed-ben-Mohamed,  note,  179 

Hanssens,  Captain,  40 

Harbey,  Rev.  C.  H.,  testifies  as  to 
lying  proclivities  of  natives, 
600.     See  Epondo. 

Harrison,  Major  James,  369,  374; 
letter  to  London  Times,  404  et 
seq.;  remarks  upon  side  issue 
raised  by  Secretary  of  Congo 
Reform  Association,  409  et  seq. 

Head,  Mr.  George,  M.A.,  de- 
molishes arguments  of  Secre- 
tary of  Congo  Reform  Associa- 
.tion  at  Boston  Peace  Congress, 

Head  tax,  m  British  colonies,  582 

Health  committees,  268 

Heffter,  his  theory  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  State,  528 

Henderson,  Mr.  John,  his  com- 
ments on  Consul  Casement's 
report,  466  et  seq. 

Henry,  Commandant,  220,  221, 
222 

Heusch,  De,  Lieut.,  194;  is  killed 
in  battle,  ibid. 

Heuval,  Dr.  Van  den,  35 

Heymans,  Captain,  54 

Hinde,  Dr.  Sidney,  179,  183, 
note,  188;  his  description  of  a 
boma,  note,  191 

Hodister,  178 

Holland,  Queen  of,  143 

Holt,  Mr.  John,  Liverpool  mer- 
chant, 373;  pays  Mr.  Benedetti 
;/£4o,  383,  384;  his  trading  com- 
pany loses  its  case  against  the 
Compagnie  Frangaise  du  Congo 
Occidental  before  the  Council  of 
Appeal  at  Libreville,  450 

Horses,  269 

Hospital  for  Natives,  Boma,  268 

Humanitarianism,  pretext  of,  578 

Hut  tax,  in  British  colonies,  582, 
605 

Hygienic  Commission,  Boma,  265 

I 

Import  duties,  140 
Imports  into  Congo  Free  State, 
1903,  282,  283,  284,  286;  com- 


pared with  imports  of  previous 
years,  286 

Independance  Beige,  352,  353;  374 

Influenza,  187 

International  Association  for  the 
Exploration  and  Civilisation  of 
Central  Africa,  creation  of,  12; 
General  Sanford  (United  States 
Minister  at  Brussels)  becomes 
member,  1 3 ;  receives  influen- 
tial support,  ibid.;  receives  re- 
port of  Commission  of  Eight, 
25;  founds  station  on  Lake 
Tanganyika,  34;  stations  cre- 
ated by,  491 ;  its  recognition  by 
United  States  as  a  friendly 
Government  recommended  by 
Senator  Morgan,  492;  treaties 
with  Germany,  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Portugal,  544  et 
seq. ;  declaration  exchanged 
with  Belgium,  ibid. 

International  Missionary  Alliance, 
300;    eleven  grants  of  land  to, 

387 
Irebu,  56 
Itembo,  52 
Itimbiri,  251 
Ituri,  forest  of,  52 
Ivory,  tax  on,    178,    272;  export 

duty  on,  278 


Janssen,  M.  Camille,  165 

Janssens,  M.,  president  of  Com- 
mittee of  Inquiry,  476 

Japan,  domainal  system  of,  334 

Jesuits,  301 

Johnston,  Sir  Harry,  G.  C.  M.  G., 
152;  quotation  from  his  book. 
The  Uganda  Protectorate,  400  et 
seq. 

Juan  II.,  King  of  Portugal,  42 

Junker,  Dr.,  German  explorer,  53; 
on  native  punishments,  425 

Jiirgens,  218 


K 


Kabambari,  191 

Kabinda,  43 ;  attacked  by  Bate- 
telas,  217,  218 

Kabindas,  a  Congolese  tribe  em- 
ployed by  Stanley  as  carriers, 
39 


Index 


627 


Kakongos,  153 

Kalengvo.     See  Epondo. 

Karema,  34 

Kassai,  50 

Kassali,  Lake,  48 

Kasson,  Mr.,  United  States  Pleni- 
potentiary, 107 

Kassongo,  47,  181,  182,  187,  188, 
189,  191,  193,  221 

Katanga,  48;  copper  deposits  in, 
ibid.;  soon  to  be  reached  by 
railroad,  48;  184 

Katue,  221 

Khartoum,  214 

Khedive  of  Egypt  employs  Sir 
Samuel  Baker,  4 

Kibala  Mountains,  the  African 
Switzerland,  48 

Kiranga-cha-gungo,  largest  in- 
land volcano  in  world,  57 

Kirk,  Sir  John,  136,  426 

Kipango,  186 

Kivu,  Lake  of,  57 

Kleine  Journal,  462 

Konings,  218 

Kwango,  50 


La  Liberie,  460 

La  Lul on ga  Society.  Se^  Epondo; 
608 

Labour,  question  of  native,  581 

Labudi,  47 

Lado,  Enclave  of,  210 

Lado  territory,  219 

Laeken,  Brussels,  King  Leopold's 
palace,  248 

Lagos,  British  colony  of,  its 
revenue,  1898-1901,  note,  289; 
sixty-five  per  cent,  of  revenue 
derived  from  alcoholic  liquor, 
311;  wasteful  methods  of  deal- 
ing with  rubber  and  timber, 
323;  decline  of  prosperity  in, 
tbid.,  374,  468;  its  revenue  re- 
viewed by  the  Lagos  Standard, 
469  et  seq. 

Lake  Albert  Edward,  56 

Lake  Albert  Nyanza,  52,  56 

Lake  Kassali,  48 

Lake  Kivu,  57 

Lake  Leopold  IL,  discovered  by 
Stanley,  56 

Lake  Matumba,  46,  53 

Lake  Moero,  49 


Lake  Tanganyika.  See  Tangan- 
yika. 

Lambermont,  Baron,  attends 
Brussels  Conference  (1876),  8; 
reports  upon  safeguards  for 
native  races,  26;  drafts  final 
act  of  International  Conference, 
ibid.;  on  slavery,  89;  his  defini- 
tion of  free  trade,  m  ;  presides 
over  Second  Brussels  Confer- 
ence, 136 

Land  system,  features  of  the,  in 
the  African  colonies  of  Ger- 
many, Great  Britain,  France, 
and  Portugal,  612  et  seq.  {See 
Congo  Free  State;  586) 

Lange,  De,  Belgian  officer,  192 

Lansdowne,  Marquess  of,  450;  his 
dispatch  to  the  Powers  Signa- 
tory to  the  Berlin  Act,  457  et 
seq.;  its  reception  by  British 
press,  460,  465  ;  dispatch  to  the 
Powers  Signatory  of  the  Gen- 
eral Act  of  Berlin  respecting 
alleged  cases  of  ill-treatment  of 
natives  and  the  existence  of 
trade  monopolies  in  Congo 
State,  573  ^<  seq. 

Launay,  Count  de,  298 

Laveleye,  M.  Emile,  105 

Lavigerie,  Cardinal,  90;  fotinds 
Belgian  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
91;  visits  Belgium,  134,  426 

Lawrence,  William  Beach,  on 
what  constitutes  a  State,  528 

Le  Marinel,  Lieut.,  178,  179 

Leigh,  Mr.  John  George,  his 
agreement  with  Captain  Guy 
Burrows,  353 

Leopold  n.  (King  of  the  Belgians 
and  Sovereign  of  the  Congo 
Free  State),  his  accession  to 
Belgian  throne,  2 ;  believes 
Africa  promising  outlet  for  sur- 
plus European  population,  3  ;  his 
magnificent  physique  and  per- 
sonal accomplishments,  ibid.; 
perceives  opportunity  to  civi- 
lise Central  Africans  and  found 
Belgian  colony,  ibid.;  his  scheme 
disregarded,  ibid.;  speech  be- 
fore Belgian  Senate  in  i860,  4; 
his  philanthropy,  6 ;  considers 
how  the  slave  trade  in  Africa 
can  be  abolished,  ibid.;  con- 
venes an  international  confer- 


628 


Index 


Leopold  II. — Continued 

encc  of  geographers  in  Brus- 
sels (1876)  to  discuss  the  sub- 
ject, 7  ;  his  circular  letter,  ibid.; 
his  speech,  8 ;  becomes  Presi- 
dent of  International  Associa- 
tion for  the  Exploration  and 
Civilisation  of  Central  Africa, 
1 2 ;  speech  before  National 
Committee,  14;  his  desire  for 
new  markets  for  Belgian  manu- 
factures, 17;  his  prescience, 
ibid.;  spends  largely  of  his  pri- 
vate fortime  to  suppress  sla- 
very, 18 ;  appeal  to  British  Gov- 
ernment, 21;  recognised  by 
Powers  as  Sovereign  ruler  of 
Congo  Free  State,  28;  becomes 
honorary  President  of  the  Com- 
ite  d' Etudes  du  Haut-Congo, 
29;  invites  Stanley  to  Brus- 
sels, 39;  induces  him  to  enter 
service  of  International  Asso- 
ciation of  the  Congo  (new  name 
of  the  Comite  d' Etudes  du  Haut- 
Congo),  ibid.;  plans  campaign 
of  exploration,  60 ;  a  true  friend 
to  Stanley,  65 ;  his  early  de- 
claration, ibid.;  letter  to  his 
ministers,  99;  authorised  by 
Belgian  Chamber  to  assume 
sovereignty  of  Congo  Free 
State,  loi ;  his  acknowledg- 
ment, ibid.;  receives  congratu- 
lations and  is  visited  by  Lord 
Mayor  of  London,  10 1,  102;  is 
appealed  to  by  British  Govern- 
ment to  call  conference  at 
Brussels  to  concert  measures 
for  suppression  of  slavery  on 
East  Coast  of  Africa,  132; 
letter  to  M.  Beemaert,  147  ;  be- 
queaths sovereignty  of  Congo 
Free  State  to  Belgium,  149; 
note,  179;  confers  title  of 
Baron  on  Captain  Dhanis,  195; 
his  plans  to  suppress  slavery 
excite  little  interest,  197;  de- 
pletes his  fortune  to  achieve  his 
object,  198;  receives  scant 
support  outside  Belgium,  ibid.; 
his  Majesty's  mandate,  ibid.; 
his  first  object  realised,  205  ;  his 
political  foresight,  210;  his 
energy     and     industry,      248; 


Laeken,  his  palace  at  Brussels, 
ibid.;  his  chalet  at  Ostend, 
ibid.;  his  immense  expenditure 
on  Congo  State,  276;  impossible 
to  recover,  277;  grants  annual 
subsidy  of  1,000,000  francs  to 
Congo  State,  278;  his.  early 
declarations  consistently  car- 
ried out,  320;  Captain  Guy 
Burrows  dedicates  book  to,  347  ; 
is  abused  by  Secretary  of  Congo 
Reform  Association  at  Boston 
Peace  Congress,  395;  Congo 
Free  State  likely  to  fulfil  his 
expectations,  447 

Leopoldville,  46;  fortnightly  com- 
munication with  Stanley  Falls, 
251 ;  treaty  of,  489 

Lcroi,  Captain,  219,  220 

Leslie,  Rev.  W.  H.,  of  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union,  411; 
contributes  article  on  Congo  to 
Missionary  Review  of  the  World, 
414 

Liebrechts,  Mr.,  Secretary-General 
of  Congo  Free  State,  letters  to 
fromCaptain  Burrows,  347  etseq. 

Lindi,  221 

Lindt,  Van,  Lieut.,  189 

Lippens,  181,  183 

Livingstone,  Dr.,  enters  Congo 
region,  i860,  and  discovers  lakes 
Moero  and  Bangweolo,  4; 
found  by  Stanley  in  187 1,  ibid.; 
says  white  man  can  live  in  Cen- 
tral Africa,  17,  197 

Livingstone  Inland  Mission,  299 

Lomami,  49,  50,  51,  181,  182,  183, 

217,  218 
Lopori,  49 

Lothaire,  Commandant,  194,  217, 

218,  219 
Lua,  54 
Luahilimta,  57 
Lualaba,  47,  177,  186,  251 
Lualaba-Kassai,  201 
Luapula,  47 

Lubefu,  50,  335 
Lubuga,  57 
Lubukine,  194 
Lufila,  47 
Lufupa,  47 
Lukenie  River,  335 
Lulongo,  49,  50 

Luluabourg,  74,  201;  outbreak  of 
Batetelas  at,  216,  218 


Index 


629 


Lumber,  272 

Lunda  country,  74 

Lusambo,  179,  201,  217 

Lusana,  183 

Lutete,  Gongo,  179  ;  his  per- 
sonality, 180,  181,  182,  184;  is 
court-martialled  and  shot,  190; 
disastrous  consequences  of  that 
event,  191,  216 


M 


Mabode,  52 

Maes,  Dr.,  32;  his  death,  ibid. 

Maguire,  Dr.,  English  missionary, 
remarks  on  Congo  Free  State, 
^2g  et  seq. 

Mahagi,  212 

Malet,  Sir  Edward,  attends  In- 
ternational Conference  at  Ber- 
lin, 24;  speech,   27 

Maloney,  Mr.  J.  A.,  on  native  pun- 
ishments, 426 

Malumba,  Batetela  mutineer, 
murdered  by  one  of  his  follow- 
ers, 221 

Manning,  Cardinal,  131 

Miinycma,  collectors  of  ivory,  59, 
1S2;   country  of,  191,  218,  221 

Mares,  M.  Roland  de,  384 

Mamo,  M.,  32 

Marriage,  Christian,  among  na- 
tives, 273 

Martens,  Prof.,  136 

Martin  of  Bohemia,  cosmo- 
grapher   42 

Matadi,  47,  252,  253;  trains  from, 

255 
Matumba,  Lake,  46,  53,  56 
Mayomb^s,  153 
Mayumbe  Railway,  256 
Mbomu,  54,  208,  209,  210 
Meshra-er-Rck,  213 
Mfini,  56 

Mgonda-Mkali,  33 
Michaux,  Captain,  182,   183,  184, 

218 
Middle  Congo,  46,  48 
Mirambo,    33;    his    conflict   with 

Simba,  36 
Missionaries,  299,  300,    301,    385, 

387,   411,   424,   425,   427,   429; 

deceived  by  native   witnesses, 

233 
Missions,  Protestant,  299 
Modes  et  Robes  d.  la  Congo,  154 


Moero,  Lake,  49 ;  south-eastern 
boundary  between  British  ter- 
ritory  and   Congo    Free   State, 

59 

Moharra,  Munie,  181,  184,  185, 
186 

Mohun,  Mr.,  formerly  United 
States  Consul  at  Boma,  411; 
his  opinion  of  Congo  Free  State 
Government,  415  et  seq. 

Mokoangi,  Cataracts  of,  54 

Molieka,  52 

Moltke,  Von,  180 

Moncheur,  Baron,  Belgian  Minis- 
ter to  United  States,  389; 
career,  618 

Mongalla,  52 

Moore,  English  naturalist,  57; 
discovers  zoological  remains  of 
a  dead  sea,  59 

Morgan,  Senator,  of  Alabama,, 
presents  memorial  to  Congress, 
38S  ;  submits  Report  from  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Relations 
recommending  United  States 
to  recognise  International  Af- 
rican Association  as  friendly 
government,  492 

Morning  Advertiser,  comments 
upon  Lord  Lansdowne's  dis- 
patch of  August  8,  1903,  458  et 
seq.;  betrays  some  British  de- 
sires, 459 

Morning  Post,  369;  letter  to 
from  Major  James  Harrison, 
409;  from  Mr.  Grey,  435  et 
seq. 

Morrison,  Rev.  Mr.  W.  M.,  of 
Lexington,  Va.,  385;  fails  to 
obtain  land  concessions  and 
special  privileges,  386;  his 
statements  compared  with 
facts,  387,  388,  396,  456 

Mountains,  Blue,  52,  53 

Mountains,  Crystal,  47 

Mountiiins,  Kibala,  48 

Mountains,  Pallaballa,  252,  253 

Mountnaorres,  Lord,  374;  starts 
on  journey  through  Congo  Free 
State,  440;  letter  from,  to  Lon- 
don Globe,  441  et  seq. 

Mpala,  37 

Msiri,  48 

Miinster  Westphal,  462 

Musseronges,  153 

Mwadi,  184 


6.^o 


Index 


Mwana  Mkwanga,  Arab  camp  at, 
191 

N 

Natives,  Commission  for  Protec- 
tion of,  report  of  first  meeting, 
572  et  seq.;  alleged  to  be  ill- 
treated,  $12,  et  seq. 

Nerincx,  Professor  A.,  coadjutor 
of  Baron  Moncheur,  389 

Netherlands,  Prince  Henry  of, 
becomes  President  of  the  Na- 
tional Committee  of  the  Inter- 
national Association  for  the 
Exploration  and  Civilisation  of 
Central  Africa,  13 

New  York  Herald,  Stanley's  let- 
ters to,  38 

New  York  Press,  464 

Neyn,  M.  De,  assistant  at  Court 
of  Inquiry,  476 

Niadi  Kwilu  Basin  explored,  73 

Niadi,  treaty  with  King  of,  490 

Niam-Niam,      tribe     inhabiting 
Bahr-el-Ghazal  country,  214 

Niangara,  53 

Niger,  navigation  of  the,  as  pro- 
vided for  in  General  Act  of 
Berlin  Conference,  541  et  seq. 

Nisco,  Baron,  President  of  Court 
of  Appeal,  232;  member  of 
Court  of  Inquiry,  476 

N6tre  Dame,  Sisters  of,  301 

Nutmegs,  269 

Nyangwe,  45,  52,  59,  181,  182, 
186,  187,  188,  217,  221 

Nys,  M.  Ernest,  77 

Nzilo,  47 

O 

Obi,  220 

Omdurman,  battle  of,  213 

Ordeal  by  poison,  159;  State  Cir- 
cular on  repression  of,  566  et 
seq. 

Ostend,  King  Leopold's  chalet  at, 
248 

Our  Lady  of  Perpetual  Help, 
Roman  Catholic  Mission 
steamer,  300 

Ourroussof,  Prince,  136 


Padrao  Foreland,  42 
Pallaballa  Mountains,  252,  253 


Palmerston,  Lord,  on  recognition 
of  States  by  British  Govern- 
ment, 528 

Panga  Falls,  53 

Parliament,  British,  debate  in 
580 

Partition  of  Congo  State,  578  ^« 
seq.;  610 

Peace,  English  Baptist  Mission 
steamer,  300 

Pepper,  268 

Petit  Bleu,  interview  with  Stanley 
published  in,  397 

Phare  de  la  Loire,  461 

Philippeville,  SS.,  477 

Phipps,  Sir  Constantine,  his  Brit- 
annic Majesty's  minister  at 
Brussels,  dispatch  on  protec- 
tion of  natives,  561  et  seq. 

Photographs,  faking  of,  371  et 
seq.;  602  et  seq. 

Pigmies,  156 

Poison,  ordeal  by,  159 

Polidori,  Signor,  Italian  phy- 
sician, remarks  on  Congo  Free 
State,  428  ei  seq. 

Poll  tax,  in  British  colonies,  582 

Polygamy,  163,  273 

Ponthier,  Captain,  190,  191,  193 

Ponthoz,  Count  Van  der  Straeten, 
on  safeguarding  native  races,  26 

Pope  Leo  XIII.,  encyclical  on 
abolition  of  slavery  in  Brazil, 
90;  receives  Central  African 
Christian  Negroes,  ibid.;  his 
speech,  ibid. 

Popelin,  Captain,  commands  sec- 
ond Belgian  expedition,  35; 
death  of,  37 

Population,  displacement  of,  225; 
diminution  of,  591  et  seq. 

Portugal,  claims  large  sections  of 
Africa,  17;  claims  Congo  River, 
19;  land  system  of  its  African 
colonies,  612  et  seq. 

Postal  Service,  244 

Premontr^  Fathers,  301 

Prestation,    natives'    contribution 
/of  labour   towards  support  of 

/  State,  294 
I'TubHc  Force,  164 

Public  Ledger,  465 

Puttkamer,  Herr  Von,  Governor 
of  the  Cameroons,  his  opinion 
of  the  navigation  of  the  Congo 
River,  252 


Index 


631 


Q 

Queen  of  Holland,  143 
R 

Ramaeckers,  Captain,  commands 
fourth  Belgian  expedition,  36; 
joins  his  colleagues  at  Tangan- 
yika, ibid.;  takes  over  com- 
mand from  Cambier,  ibid.; 
death  of,  37 

Rashid,  179,  189,  190,  194 

Redemptionists,  301 

Redjaf,  201;  railroad  to  Dufile, 
256 

Reed,  Henri,  American  Baptist 
Mission  "steamer,  300 

Rejoinder  of  Congo  State  to 
charges  in  Consul  Casement's 
Report,  590  et  seq. 

Reply  of  Congo  State  to  British 
Dispatch,  Aug.  8,  1903,  deny- 
ing that  Administration  in- 
volves systematic  cruelty  to 
natives,  577  ^i  seq. 

Revenue,  various  sources  of,  279 

Rhodes,  Cecil,  208;  prophetic  ut- 
terance by, 454 

Rhodesia,  North-eastern,  and 
Congo  Free  State  boundary, 
47;  taxes  in,  605  et  seq. 

Riba  Riba,  178 

Ridley,  Mr.  Justice,  tries  suit  for 
libel  brought  by  Belgian  officers 
against  Messrs.  R.  A.  Everett 
&  Co.  and  Captain  Guy  Bur- 
rows, in  London,  340  et  seq.;  his 
charge  to  jury,  358 

Roger,  M.,  36 

Roman  Catholic  Mission,  forty- 
four  grants  of  land  to,  387 

Roosevelt,  President,  388,  389 

Royal,  steamer  employed  by 
Stanley,  39 

Rubber  (caoutchouc),  its  cultiva- 
tion and  collection,  270;  its 
varieties,  272;  export  duty  on, 
278;  decrease  in  export  of, 
from  eight  British  colonies,  324 
et  seq. 

Rubi,  52 

Rudolph,  Archduke,  of  Austria, 
becomes  President  of  National 
Committee  of  International  As- 
sociation  for   the    Exploration 


and     Civilisation     of     Central 

Africa,  13 
Ruki,  50 
Rumeliza,  chief  of  Ujiji,  191,  193, 

194 
Rusisi,  57 

S 

Sacred  Heart  of  Mary,  Sisters  of 
the,  301 

Sacred  Heart,  Priests  of  the,  301 

Salisbury,  Marquess  of,  his  opinion 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  Gov- 
ernment, 423,  456,  584 

Salisbury,  Marquess  of  (the  late), 
his  opinion  of  the  Congo  Free 
State  Government,  423 

Salusbury,  Captain,  his  allega- 
tions against  Congo  Free  State 
denied  by  Captain  Guy  Bur- 
rows, 346 

Sambas  Plateau,  50 

Sanford,  General  (United  States 
Minister  at  Brussels),  becomes 
member  of  International  Soci- 
ety for  the  Exploration  and 
Civilisation  of  Central  Africa, 
13;  declaration  by,  79;  founds, 
with  M.  Georges  Brugmann, 
Exploring  Expedition,  276 

Sankuru,  50,  179,  336 

Sannaes,  Lieut.,  221 

San  Salvador,  43 

Scherlink,  Lieut.,  183 

Scheut  Fathers,  301 

Schkopp,  Hcrr  Eberhard  Von,  his 
remarks  upon  Congolese  trade, 
287 

School  of  Tropical  Medicine,  Liv- 
erpool, 267 

Schumacher,  Dr.  Dc,  member  of 
Court  of  Inquiry,  476,  478 

Scott,  Mr.  G.  A.,  341 

Scfu,  179,  181,  183,  184,  185,  186, 
187,  189,  190 

Semlika,  boundary  between  Brit- 
ish and  Belgian  possessions,  56 

Scmliki,  221 

Seyyid  Burghash,  Sultan,  32 

Shanu,  British  subject  of  Lagos, 
tries  to  induce  Mr.  Bencdetti 
to  join  anti-Congo  campaign, 
37y  et  seq. 

Sierra  Leone,  convictions  for  mal- 
treatment of  natives  in,  582 


6.^2 


Index 


Simba,  his  conflict  with  Mirambo, 
36 

Sir  Bartle  Frere.  See  Frere,  Sir 
Bartle. 

Sir  Charles  Dilke.  See  Dilke,  Sir 
Charles. 

Sir  Frederic  Goldsmid.  See  Gold- 
smid,  Sir  Frederic. 

Sir  Harry  Johnston.  See  John- 
ston, Sir  Harry. 

Sir  John  Kirk.  See  Kirk,  Sir 
John. 

Sir  Travers  Twiss.  See  Twiss, 
Sir  Travers. 

Slavery  in  Central  Africa,  5; 
slavery  defined,  83 ;  antiquity 
of,  ibid.;  Christ  the  first  libera- 
tionist,  84;  first  awakening  to 
infamy  of  slavery,  ibid.;  Eng- 
land's traffic  in  slaves,  ibid.; 
her  retribution,  85 ;  America's 
civil  war  to  abolish,  ibid.;  still 
extant  in  some  countries,  ibid.; 
England's  efforts  to  suppress, 
86;  horrors  of,  87;  Baron  Lam- 
bermont  on,  89;  Pope  Leo 
XIII. 's  encyclical  on,  90;  its 
strange  uses  before  the  found- 
ing of  Congo  Free  State,  274; 
Congo  State  accused  of,  294; 
declaration  concerning,  in  Gen- 
eral Act  of  Berlin  Conference, 
535  ^i  seq. 

Sleeping  sickness,  225;  no  known 
cure  for,  266 

Smallpox,  187,  221,  225,  266 

Smet  de  Naeyer,  Coimt  de, 
478 

Soudan,  migratory  habit  of  its 
population,  226 

South  Africa,  British  punitive  ex- 
peditions in,  for  collection  of 
taxes  from  natives,  607 

Spain,  King  of,  becomes  Presi- 
dent of  National  Committee  of 
International  Association  for 
the  Exploration  and  Civilisa- 
tion of  Central  Africa,  13 

Speke,  Captain,  discovers  Lake 
Tanganyika,  and  sources  of 
the  Nile  and  Lake  Victoria,  4, 
58 

St.  Paul  de  Loanda,  43 

Standard,  The,  comments  upon 
Lord  Lansdowne's  dispatch  of 
August  8,  1903,  459 


Stanley  Falls,  46,  52,  179,  181, 
194,  220,  221;  fortnightly  com- 
munication with  Leopoldville, 

251 

Stanley,  Henry  Morton,  Sir,  dis- 
covers Dr.  Livingstone,  4;  says 
white  man  can  live  in  Central 
Africa ,  17;  visits  Congo  in  in- 
terest of  King  Leopold,  20; 
demonstrates  importance  of 
Congo  River  in  letters  to  New 
York  Herald  and  London  Daily 
Telegraph,  39  ;  founds  and  forti- 
fies station  at  Vivi,  40;  con- 
structs road  from  Vivi  to  Isan- 
ghila,  ibid.;  founds  a  station  at 
Manyanga,  ibid.;,  learns  of 
French  founding  Brazzaville, 
and  replies  by  founding  Leo- 
poldville, ibid.;  goes  to  Brussels 
to  report  progress,  ibid.;  re- 
turns to  Central  Africa,  Febru- 
ary, 1883  ;  his  achievements  im- 
possible without  King  Leo- 
pold's aid,  65,  197;  Boula  Ma- 
tari,  native  name  for,  note,  235; 
insists  upon  necessity  of  rail- 
road round  the  thirty-two  cata- 
racts, 253,  262,  274,  275;  on  a 
common  measure  of  civilisa- 
tion, 277;  writes  introduction 
to  book  by  Captain  Guy  Bur- 
rows, 347;  the  true  motive  of 
the  anti-Congo  campaign,  370; 
his  opinion  of  Congo  Free  State 
Government,  397  et  seq.;  Congo 
Free  State  hkely  to  fulfil  his 
expectations,  447 

Stanley  Pool,  50,  252 

Stanleyville,  railroad  from,  to 
Great  Lakes,  256 

Stephanie ville,  treaty  of,  490 

Stokes,  executed  for  selling  arms 
to  State's  enemies  in  time  of 
war,  originally  Protestant  mis- 
sionary, 307,  373,  452 

Storm,  Lieut.,  fotinds  station  at 
Mpala,  37 

Strauch,  Colonel,  President  of  the 
Contite  d' Etudes  du  Haiit-Congo, 
29,  67 

Sugar,  S3,  272 

Svensson,  218 

S wanton,  Mr.,  341 

Sv.'edish  Missionary  Society,  300; 
nine  grants  of  land  to,  387 


Index 


633 


Tanganyika,  Lake,  effort  to  foiind 
station  at,  34;  the  first  station 
of  the  International  Associa- 
tion for  the  Exploration  and 
Civilisation  of  Central  Africa, 
ibid.;  partitioned  equally  be- 
tween Congo  Free  State  and 
German  East  Africa,  58;  dis- 
covered in  1858  by  Burton  and 
Speke,  ibid.;  first  circumnavi- 
gated by  Stanley,  ibid.;  191, 
194,  200,  208 

Taxation,  Mr.  Joseph  Chamber- 
lain ridicules  native  exonera- 
tion from,  581  ct  seq.;  defends 
theory  of,  582 

Taxation  of  natives,  114;  their 
migration  to  avoid,  224;  per- 
sonal, the  bases  of,  293 ;  reduc- 
tion of  direct,  ibid. 

Telegraph,  59 

Telegraph  service,  245 

Telephone,  59 

Telephone  service,  245 

Terrell,  Mr.,  136 

Tcrvueren,  Brussels,  Museum, 
containing  objects  illustrating 
Central  African  life,  265 

Thomas,  Mr.  Lewis,  341 

Thys,  Lieut.,  256 

Times,  The,  373,  384;  letter  from 
Major  James  Harrison,  404  et 
seq.;  459;  French  criticism  of, 
460 

Tippo  Tip,  59,  note,  179,  180,  181, 
183,  189,  194 

Tobacco,  53,  272 

Tobback,  M.,  resident  for  Congo 
Free  State  at  Stanley  Falls,  189 

To-Day,  466 

Trappistines,  301 

Trappists,  301 

Tuckey,  James  Kingston,  British 
explorer,  43 

Twiss,  Sir  Travers,  105;  on  free 
navigation  of  the  Congo,  502 

U 

Ubanghi,  53,  208,  251 
Uelle,  53,  177,  201,  208,  209 
Uelle    Railway,    proposed   exten- 
sion, 54 
Uganda  Protectorate.      See  Har- 
rison, Major. 


Ujiji,  191 

United  States,  particulars  of  their 
origin  recorded,  i ;  recognises 
International  Association  as 
a  friendly  Government,  22; 
makes  treaties  with  Congo  Free 
State  in  1884  and  1885,  92,  199 

Upper  Congo,  44 ;  Belgian  Society 
of  the,  178 

Uranga,  49 

Usamba  Plateau,  49 


Van  Dorpe,  Captain,  165 

Van  Gele,  53 

Vanilla,  269 

Vattel  on  manner  of  acquiring 
sovereignty  of  free  country,  527 

Vivi,  first  station  foianded  by 
Stanley,  40 ;  road  from,  to  Isan- 
ghila  made  by  Stanley,  ibid.; 
treaty  of,  487 

Vivian,  Lord,  136;  speech  at  Sec- 
ond Brussels  Conference,  142 

Vohsen,  Consul,  453 

Von  Bomhaupt,  Herr,  453 

Von  Gotzen,  Count,  discoverer  of 
volcano  Kiranga-cha-gungo,  57 

Von  Moltke.     See  Moltke,  Von. 

W 

Waddas,  53 

Wagenia.  a  riverain  tribe,  186, 
187 

Wahis,  Colonel  (afterwards  Gen- 
eral Baron  Wahis),  253;  speech 
describing  Congolese  conditions 
twenty  years  ago,  479  et  seq. 

Washington,  Mr.  Booker,  424 

Wauters,  A.  J.,  note,  188 

Wautier,  Lieut.,  33;  his  death,  34 

West  Africa,  journal  of  the  Liver- 
pool Chamber  of  Commerce, 
450  et  seq. 

Wheaton,  on  recognition  uf 
States,  69;  on  political  stacus 
of  American  Indians,  71 

White  Fathers,  301 

Whiteley,  Mr.  James  Gustavus, 
of  Baltimore,  his  opinion  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  Government, 
411  et  seq. 

Widows,  strangling,  icS 

Wingate,  Sir  Regmald,  454 


634 


Index 


Winton,  Sir  Francis  de  (Governor- 
General  of  Congo  during  ab- 
sence of  Sta.iley),  formulates 
land  system,  3^3 

Wissmann,  262 

Wissmann  Falls,  50 

Wolf,  Eugene,  admonition  from, 
462 

Wouters,  De,  Lieut.,  185  -"" 
193,  194;  his  death,  195 

Wulfers,     Rev.     Father,    c 
Romee  Mission,  Yanongh 


extracts 
305 


from  his   diary,   303- 


Yambuya,  52 

Young    Africa,    one-screw    bargt 
employed  by  Stanley,  39 


•,    Englishmen   murderec 
^ands  at,  35 
ataracts  of,  54 


lioslioiiia  s  IS  ^ 


BORMAY  4  CO.  ,    N.Y. 


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